The Return of the Dead, and Other Ballads

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.
by GEORGE BORROW
London: printed for private circulation 1913
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 throe”— To honied words we list so fain .
She took away the bolsters blue; And were I only young again ! “Bare straw will serve for the like of you”— To honied words we list so fain .