The water-wheel goes 'round and 'round With heavy sighs of mournful sound, While dismal cries and weary moans Unite with sad and tearful groans, And weeping waves of water throw...
Dear songs of my country! How sweetly thy measures Come stealthily stealing o'er mountain and wave, To sweeten the riches of liberty's treasures And thrill with their numbers the hearts of the brave!...
Had we not met, the brooding woe And all the griefs that greater grow, Might not have been, and happy-wise Our lives have laughed with lullabies And quaffed such joys as few may know. ...
Make the most of this life; where the shadow reposes The beams of the summer shall gather in glee, And the snow on the graves of the lilies and roses But cradles the blooms that shall whiten the lea;...
Sing me a song, O, Wind, Of musical cadence sweet, Which in the wood around Shall often and oft repeat; Soft as an angel's song That never can give annoy, Which in the balmy notes...
Our souls are the deserts of sorrow, Our hearts are the ashes of hope, And madly from gladness we borrow The brightness where sadness may grope; My raptures in wretchedness vanish,...
Spring, among her sylvan shades, And the gladness of her glades, Once in dreamy hours was straying, Where sweet Music with her throngs Of glad melodies and songs In the happy vales was playing. ...
The songs that mother used to sing! How tenderly those ditties roll, And to the dirges in my soul The happy notes of gladness bring! Where'er my vagrant feet may roam...
Our dearest joys forever flow From fountains of the Long Ago, That from the heights of pleasures past Flood all the present valleys vast, And with eternal glees provide The future's endless ocean tide....
When we shall meet, I strangely know The mad emotions that shall flow Across my heart all quivering, Beneath the raptures he shall bring From angel years that gladdened so. ...