But the youths lay calmly sleeping; And the angel, their protector, Spake before the throne of glory: “I have watched beside the sleepers, Made them turn in slumber ever, That the damps of yonder cavern Should not cramp their youthful limbs; And the rocks around I ’ve opened, That the sun at rising, setting, May give freshness to their cheeks. So they lie in rest and quiet, In the bliss of happy dreams.” So they lay; and still, beside them, Lay the dog in peaceful slumber, Never whimpering in his sleep.

What It Means

This is a placeholder explanation generated by the low-overhead model. It interprets "But the youths lay calmly sleeping; And the angel, their protector, Spake before the throne of glory: “I have watched beside the sleepers, Made them turn in slumber ever, That the damps of yonder cavern Should not cramp their youthful limbs; And the rocks around I ’ve opened, That the sun at rising, setting, May give freshness to their cheeks. So they lie in rest and quiet, In the bliss of happy dreams.” So they lay; and still, beside them, Lay the dog in peaceful slumber, Never whimpering in his sleep." in the context of "Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, The Seven Sleepers of Ephesus as quoted in Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes, ed. by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Boston: James R. Osgood & Co., 1876–79." to mean that wisdom is timeless.