RAVEN***


Transcribed from the 1913 Thomas J. Wise pamphlet by David Price, email
ccx074@pglaf.org





                             THE NIGHTINGALE
                          THE VALKYRIE AND RAVEN
                            AND OTHER BALLADS


                                    BY
                              GEORGE BORROW

                                 LONDON:
                     PRINTED FOR PRIVATE CIRCULATION

                                   1913

               _Copyright in the United States of America_
          _by Houghton_, _Mifflin and Co. for Clement Shorter_.




THE NIGHTINGALE, OR THE TRANSFORMED DAMSEL


I know where stands a Castellaye,
   Its turrets are so fairly gilt;
With silver are its gates inlaid,
   Its walls of marble stone are built.

Within it stands a linden tree,
   With lovely leaves its boughs are hung,
Therein doth dwell a nightingale,
   And sweetly moves that bird its tongue.

A gallant knight came riding by,
   He heard its dulcet ditty ring;
And sorely, sorely, wondered he
   At midnight hour that it should sing.

"And hear, thou little Nightingale,
   If thou to me wilt sing a lay,
Thy feathers I'll with gold bedeck,
   Thy neck with costly pearls array."

"With golden feathers others lure,
   Such gifts for me have value slight;
I am a strange and lonely bird,
   But little known to mortal wight."

"And thou, a strange wild bird thou be,
   Whom other mortals little know;
Yet hunger pinches thee, and cold,
   When falls the cruel winter snow."

"I laugh at hunger, laugh at snow,
   Which falls so wide on hill and lea;
But I am vexed by secret care,
   I know not either joy or glee.

"Betwixt the hills and valleys deep
  