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FURTHER READING
Poems by Anonymous
Adam Lay Ibounden
Eadwacer
Earth Took of Earth
Ecclesiastes 3:1-8
Hymn to Dionysos
Lord Randall
Old English riddle
The Creation of the Moon
The Cruel Mother
The Lady That Loved a Swine
The maidens came
Related Prose
Poetic Form: Ballad
Other Ballads
Ballad of the Goodly Fere
by Ezra Pound
The Ballad of Cathay Williams William Cathay
by Shane McCrae
The Ballad of the Children of the Czar
by Delmore Schwartz
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner
by Samuel Taylor Coleridge
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The Unquiet Grave

 
by Anonymous

I

'The wind doth blow today, my love,  
  And a few small drops of rain;  
I never had but one true-love;  
  In cold grave she was lain.  
  
II

'I'll do as much for my true-love 
  As any young man may;  
I'll sit and mourn all at her grave  
  For a twelvemonth and a day.'  
  
III

The twelvemonth and a day being up,  
  The dead began to speak:
'Oh who sits weeping on my grave,  
  And will not let me sleep?'—  
  
IV

''Tis I, my love, sits on your grave,  
  And will not let you sleep;  
For I crave one kiss of your clay-cold lips,
  And that is all I seek.'—  
  
V

'You crave one kiss of my clay-cold lips;  
  But my breath smells earthy strong;  
If you have one kiss of my clay-cold lips,  
  Your time will not be long.
  
VI

''Tis down in yonder garden green,  
  Love, where we used to walk,  
The finest flower that ere was seen  
  Is wither'd to a stalk.  
  
VII

'The stalk is wither'd dry, my love,
  So will our hearts decay;  
So make yourself content, my love,  
  Till God calls you away.'



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