Dedicated to, Composed for, and Sung by S.C. Massett
[Cover page:] "Answer to the 'Old Arm Chair'" (19 Jul 1844)
[Title page: "A Reply to the Old Arm-Chair"]
Words by John H. Warland, Esq. 
Composed by T.H. Bissell.

Boston: Keith's Music Publishing House, 67 & 69 Court St.
Thayer & Co's Lith. Boston
Plate Number: 264_6
[Sources: 1844-390750@LoC; 123/002@Levy]

1. Oh sacred thro’ life be that relic to thee, 
The old oaken chair with its memories dear, 
It hath seen the leaves of the ancestral tree, 
One by one from its boughs fall stricken and sear;
Oh shelter it kindly in the household nook, 
In her vigils of love a mother sat there, 
And it hath ever a dear familiar look, 
Like the face of a friend, bless that old arm-chair.
Bless that old arm-chair, bless that old arm-chair.

2. She is gone, she is gone, but it stands there yet, 
They have taken it not from the old fireside, 
Undisturb’d be it still, in the same nook set, 
Let it stand where it stood when thy mother died, 
Oh she lov’d it, she lov’d it, that old heirloom, 
And tho’ smileth no longer her sweet face there, 
The spirit of the lov’d and the lost shall come, 
Ever to bless thee and guard the old arm-chair, 
To bless thee and guard the old arm-chair.

3. When the family sit at their daily meal, 
In its place is each chair but that vacant one, 
Yet holy around them her presence they feel, 
And they seem still to hear her famil  iar tone;
See the little ones turn from the sacred Book, 
As speaketh the father her name in his pray’r, 
To her favorite seat for their mother’s look, 
They shall see her no more in the old arm-chair, 
They shall see her no more in the old arm-chair.

4. Oh sacred thro’ life be that relic to thee, 
Thy mother’s arm-chair with its memories dear, 
For get not the day when thou sats’t on her knee, 
And so sweetly she smiled ere sorrow was near;
It was there, it was there she repos’d her head, 
When she breath’d for her lov’d ones her dying pray’r, 
Then deem, though her form in the cold earth be laid, 
That her spirit still guardeth the old arm-chair, 
That her spirit still guardeth the old arm-chair.