ANONYMOUS – The Daemon-lover


Where have you been my long, long love

These seven long years or more?

I'm seeking for my former vows

You gave to me before'

'Oh, hold your tongue of your former vows

For they will breed sad strife

Hold your tongue of your former vows

For I'm become a wife'

He's turned him right and round about

And the salt tear blint his ee

'I never would have trodden on Irish ground

But for the love of thee'

'If I should leave my dear husband

And my two babes also

What have you to take me to

If I with you would go?'

'I've seven ships upon the sea

And the eighth brought me to land

With four and twenty mariners bold

And music on command'

She's put her foot on board the ship

No mariners she beheld

But the sails were of the taffeta

And the masts of the beaten gold

They had not sailed a league, a league

A league but barely three

Til dismal grew his countenance

And drumly grew the sea

They had not sailed a league, a league

A league but barely three

Until she saw his cloven foot

And she wept most bitterly

'Leave off your weeping' then said he

'Of your weeping let me be

And I'll show you how the lilies grow

On the banks of Italy'

'What hill, what hill is thon I see

As white as any snow?'

'Thon is the hill of heaven' he said

Where all good people go

'What hill, what hill is thon I see

As black as any coal?'

'Thon is the hill of hell' he said

'Where you and I must go'

He struck the top mast with his hand

And the main mast with his knee

And he struck that gallant ship in two

And he sunk her beneath the sea.