My sweetheart, I dreamt Thou hadst died

My sweetheart, I dreamt Thou hadst died;
I heard the death-knells pealing,
And there were tears and wails and cries
And signs of saddest feeling.

For the low mound o’er Thy strange bed
They picked a tombstone blindly,
And a verse for Thine epitaph
To write they asked me kindly.

Oh, folks! Oh, folks! yourselves of stones,
My heart take, with grief raving,
And what I have not sung before
Use for the stone’s engraving!

You trusted not in my pure love
And scorned my word and letter—
Now if the stone will speak to you,
You’ll understand it better.