1823
Perhaps ’tis folly, but still I feel
My heart-strings quiver, my senses reel,
Thinking how like a fast stream we range,
Nearer and nearer to life’s dread change,
When soul and spirit filter away,
And leave nothing better than senseless clay.Yield, beauty, yield, for the grave does gape,
And, horribly alter’d, reflects thy shape;
For, oh! think not those childish charms
Will rest unrifled in his cold arms;
And think not there, that the rose of love
Will bloom on thy features as here above.Let him who roams at Vanity Fair
In robes that rival the tulip’s glare,
Think on the chaplet of leaves which round
His fading forehead will soon be bound,
And on each dirge the priests will say
When his cold corse is borne away,Let him who seeketh for wealth, uncheck’d
By fear of labour, let him reflect
That yonder gold will brightly shine
When he has perish’d, with all his line;
Tho’ man may rave, and vainly boast,
We are but ashes when at the most.1913
My blood is freezing, my senses reel,
So horror stricken at heart I feel;
Thinking how like a fast stream we range
Nearer and nearer to that dread change,
When the body becomes so stark and cold,
And man doth crumble away to mould.Boast not, proud maid, for the grave doth gape,
And strangely altered reflects thy shape;
No dainty charms it doth disclose,
Death will ravish thy beauty’s rose;
And all the rest will leave to thee
When dug thy chilly grave shall be.O, ye who are tripping the floor so light,
In delicate robes as the lily white,
Think of the fading funeral wreath,
The dying struggle, the sweat of death—
Think on the dismal death array,
When the pallid corse is consigned to clay!O, ye who in quest of riches roam,
Reflect that ashes ye must become;
And the wealth ye win will brightly shine
When burried are ye and all your line;
For your many chests of much loved gold
You’ll nothing obtain but a little mould.
Note.—Each poem to which no reference is attached appeared for the first time in this volume.
There is a copy of Mollie Charane and Other Ballads in the Library of the British Museum. The Press-mark is C. 44. d. 38.
(56) [Grimhild’s Vengeance: 1913]
Grimhild’s Vengeance / Three Ballads / By / George Borrow / Edited / With an Introduction / By / Edmund Gosse, C. B. / London: / Printed for Private Circulation / 1913.
Collation:—Square demy octavo, pp. 40; consisting of: Half-title (with blank reverse) pp. 1–2; Title-page, as above (with a note regarding the American
copyright upon the centre of the reverse) pp. 3–4; Introduction pp. 5–14; and text of the three Ballads pp. 15–40. The head-line is Grimhild’s Vengeance throughout, upon both sides of the page. At the foot of p. 40 is the following imprint: “London: / Printed for Thomas J. Wise, Hampstead, N.W. / Edition limited to Thirty Copies.” The signatures are A (a half-sheet of four leaves), and B and C (two sheets, each eight leaves), each inset within the other.
Issued in bright green paper wrappers, with untrimmed edges, and with the title-page reproduced upon the front. The leaves measure 8½ × 6⅞ inches.
Thirty Copies only were printed.