XHTML 1.0 Table Problem

Put the following table into your browser and see what happens:

<table border="1">
<tr>
  <td rowspan="3">left</td>
  <td>top</td>
</tr>
<tr>
  <td>middle</td>
</tr>
<tr>
  <td>bottom</td>
  <td rowspan="3">right</td>
</tr>
</table>

I want the part that says "right" to span all the way up the three rows just like the "left" side does.

I sat here messing with the snippet of code for a good hour and cannot figure out what is wrong with it. I would appreciate your help.

-Aziz