I Love Him Still

                                                          (A Ballad)

                       I.

Pray pardon me stranger for daring to speak

But I am so weary, so lonely and weak;

Shrink not from me stranger, tho’ wretched I seem,

For once I was happy and lived in love’s dream.

Tomorrow, they tell me, you sail far away

To a town where the lads and the lassies are gay;

And there you will meet on some terrace or lawn

A lover of mine in days that have gone.

                   Chorus

O, lead him kind stranger down through the cool grove,

And whisper of flowers, of moonlight and love;

O, lead him kind stranger down by the old mill,

And tell him O, tell him, I love him so still.

                       II.

“Know him?” Ah, stranger, you’ll know him at sight;

Such laughing blue eyes have ne’er seen the light.

Such music of voice in laughter or song,

I never have heard as I’ve journeyed along.

O, ask not the reason why this had to be,

But take my short message far over the sea;

And tell him that always my torn heart has been

As free as his own from temptation or sin.

                   Chorus

June 4, ‘91