To S. P. Thompson, Esq.
"Summer Longings" (1849)
Words from the Home Journal
[by Denis Florence McCarthy]
Composed by Stephen Collins Foster, 1826-1864

1.
Ah! my heart is weary waiting,
  Waiting for the May --
Waiting for the pleasant rumbles,
  Where the fragrant hawthorn brambles,
With the woodbine alternating,
  Scent the dewy way.
Ah! my heart is weary waiting,
  Waiting for the May.

2.
Ah! my heart is sick with longing,
  Longing for the May.
Longing to escape from study,
  To the young face fair and ruddy,
And the thousand charms belonging
  To the summer's day.
Ah! my heart is sick and longing,
  Longing for the May.

3.
Ah! my heart is sore with sighing,
  Sighing for the May.
Sighing for their sure returning
  When the summer beams are burning,
Hopes and flow'rs that dead or dying
  All the winter lay.
Ah! my heart is sore with sighing,
  Sighing for the May.

4.
Ah! my heart is pained with throbbing,
  Throbbing for the May--
Throbbing for the seaside billows,
  Or the water-wooing willows;
Where in laughing and in sobbing
  Glide the streams away.
Ah! my heart my heart is trobbing,
Throbbing for the May.

5.
Waiting sad, dejected, weary,
  Waiting for the May.
Spring goes by with wasted warnings--
  Moonlight evenings, sunbright mornings--
Summer comes, yet dark and dreary
  Life still ebbs away--
Man is ever weary weary,
  Waiting for the May.