"First Love,
or, 'Tis Twenty Years! Yes Twenty Years!" (1847)
Written By
F. Cosby, Esq.
Composed For and Respectfully Inscribed
to
Miss Mary Johnson
of Bardstown KY
By F.J. Webster.

Louisville: W.C. Peters & Co., 507 Main Street
Cincinnati: Peters, Field & Co, corner of 4th & Walnut
Plate number: 1211
[Source: 125/016@Levy]

1. ’Tis twenty years! Yes, twenty years
Have fled into the past!
Oh! twenty long and weary years,
Since I beheld thee last!
They say that time has brush’d away
The brightness from thy cheek,
And that thy light and ringing laugh
Is more subdued and meek!

[REFRAIN 1]
’Tis twenty years! Yes, twenty years
Have fled into the past!
Oh! twenty long and weary years,
Since I beheld thee last!

2. ’Tis twenty years! Yes, twenty years!
But I canne’er forget,
How Eden like thy presence made
The places where we met!
And, as the murmur of the deep,
The seashell ne’er forsakes,
Thy gentle voice within my heart,
Its sweetest echo wakes.

[REFRAIN 2]
’Tis twenty years! Yes, twenty years,
But I can ne’er forget.
How Eden like thy presence made
The places where we met!

3. ’Tis twenty year! Yes, twenty years!
But thy beloved face,
Is mirrowed in my memory yet,
In all its girlish grace;
And thou art still the same to me,
Thine eye as brightly blue—
Thy cheek as warm, thy lip as red,
Thy heart as kind and true!

[REFRAIN 3]
’Tis twenty years! Yes, twenty years
Have fled into the past!
Oh! twenty long and weary years,
Since I beheld thee last!

4. ’Tis twenty years! Yes, twenty years!
And other eyes may see
A shade upon thy polished brow,
Invisible to me!
I see thee still with charmed eye,
And time has not erased
A single line, a single tint,
That young affection traced!

[REFRAIN 4]
’Tis twenty years! Yes, twenty years,
But I can ne’er forget.
How Eden like thy presence made
The places where we met!