Lorena

The years creep slowly by, Lorena The snow is on the grass a gain The sun's low down the sky, Lorena The frost gleams where the flowers have been But my heart beats on as warmly now As when the summer days were nigh The sun can never dip so low Or down affections 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 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 them 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, o, 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