Tenth Edition.
"I'd Offer Thee This Hand of Mine" (1849)
Composed and Arranged for the Piano Forte 
by L. Thayer Chadwick

New York: Firth, Pond & Co., No. 1 Franklin Square
B.W. Thayer & Co. Lith. Boston
G.W. Quidor Engvr.
Plate Number: 605
[Source: 101/008@Levy]

1. I’d offer thee this hand of mine, 
If I could love thee less, 
But hearts as warm, and pure as thine, 
Should never know distress, 
My fortune is too hard for thee, 
’Twould chill thy dearest joy, 
I’d rather weep to see thee free, 
Than win thee to destroy.

2. I leave thee in thy happiness,
As one too dear to love,
As one I think of but to bless,
As wretchedly I rove;
But oh! when sorrows cup I drink,
All bitter though it be,
How sweet ’twill be for me to think,
It holds no drop for thee.

3. And now my dreams are sadly o’er,
Fate bids them all depart,
And I must leave my native shore
In brokeness of heart;
Then oh! dear one, when far from thee
I ne’er know joy again,
I would not, that one thought of me
Should give thy bosom pain.