The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Return of the Dead, Edited by Thomas J.
Wise, Translated by George Borrow

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Title: The Return of the Dead
and Other Ballads

Editor: Thomas J. Wise

Release Date: December 4, 2008 [eBook #27407]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)

***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE RETURN OF THE DEAD***

Transcribed from the 1913 Thomas J. Wise pamphlet by David Price, email
ccx074@pglaf.org. Many thanks to Norfolk and Norwich Millennium Library,
UK, for kindly supplying the images from which this transcription was
made.

THE
RETURN OF THE DEAD
AND OTHER BALLADS

BY
GEORGE BORROW

LONDON:
PRINTED FOR PRIVATE CIRCULATION
1913

THE RETURN OF THE DEAD

Swayne Dyring o'er to the island strayed;
_And were I only young again_!
He wedded there a lovely maid--
_To honied words we list so fain_.

Together they lived seven years and more;
_And were I only young again_!
And seven fair babes to him she bore--
_To honied words we list so fain_.

Then death arrived in luckless hour;
_And were I only young again_!
Then died the lovely lily flower--
_To honied words we list so fain_.

The Swayne he has crossed the salt sea way,
_And were I only young again_!
And he has wedded another may--
_To honied words we list so fain_.

And he that may to his home has brought;
_And were I only young again_!
But peevish was she, and with malice fraught--
_To honied words we list so fain_.

And when she came to the castle gate,
_And were I only young again_!
The seven children beside it wait--
_To honied words we list so fain_.

The children stood in sorrowful mood,
_And were I only young again_!
She spurned them away with her foot so rude--
_To honied words we list so fain_.

Nor bread nor meat will she bestow;
_And were I only young again_!
Said "Hate ye shall have and the hunger