WEBSTER, Henry De Lafayette


Lorena

Oh, the years creep slowly by, Lorena

The snow is on the ground again

The sun's low down the sky, Lorena

The frost gleams where the flowers have been

But the heart beats on as warmly now

As when the summer days were nigh

Oh, the sun can never dip so low

A-down affection's cloudless sky

A hundred months have passed, Lorena

Since last I held that hand in mine

And felt the pulse beat fast, Lorena

Though mine beat faster far than thine

A hundred months, 'twas flowery May

When up the hilly slope we climbed

To watch the dying of the day

And hear the distant church bells chime

We loved each other then, Lorena

Far more than we ever dared to tell

And what we might have been, Lorena

Had but our loving prospered well

But then, 'tis past, the years are gone

I'll not call up their shadowy forms

I'll say to them, "Lost years, sleep on! Sleep on!

Nor heed life's pelting storms"

The story of that past, Lorena

Alas, I care not to repeat

The hopes that could not last, Lorena

They lived, but only lived to cheat

I would not cause even one regret

To rankle in your bosom now

For "if we try we may forget"

Were words of thine long years ago

Yes, these were words of thine, Lorena

They burn within my memory yet

They touched some tender chords, Lorena

Which thrill and tremble with regret

'Twas not thy woman's heart that spoke

Thy heart was always true to me

A duty, stern and pressing, broke

The tie which linked my soul with thee

It matters little now, Lorena

The past is in the eternal past

Our heads will soon lie low, Lorena

Life's tide is ebbing out so fast

There is a future, oh, thank God

Of life this is so small a part

'Tis dust to dust beneath the sod

But there, up there, 'tis heart to heart