To Mrs. Harry Woods.
Foster Melodies No. 37.
"Sadly to Mine Heart Appealing" (1858)
Song
Lines suggested on listening
to an old scottish melody
Written by Eliza Sheridan Carey (1844)
Music by Stephen Collins Foster, 1826-1864

1.
Sadly to mine heart appealing,
Sadly sadly well-a-day
Requiem like in murmurs stealing
Comes that old familiar lay
Wherefore not the wonted pleasure
From the antique music spring?
Why that well remembered measure
Grieving thoughts and anquish bring?
  Sadly sadly well-a-day,
  Sadly sadly well-a-day,
  Requiem like in murmurs stealing
  Comes that old familiar lay.

2.
Forms departed rise before me,
Smiles long vanish'd greet again,
Eyes forever seal'd beam o'er me,
Soothing once the sense of pain.
And with ev'ry thrilling number
Words of love gush on mine ear,
Voices sweet, that bound in slumber,
Hush'd have been for many a year.
  Sadly sadly well-a-day,
  Sadly sadly well-a-day,
  Requiem like in murmurs stealing
  Comes that old familiar lay.

3.
Like the winds in autumn sighing
Through the trembling alder tree
Or far surges' echo dying
Soft and low those voices flee;
And, as hues in twilight fading,
Swift those gentle forms decay;
Vainly -- vainly, Hope upbrading
Bids them pass not all away.
  Sadly sadly well-a-day,
  Sadly sadly well-a-day,
  Requiem like in murmurs stealing
  Comes that old familiar lay.

4.
Ghost-like thus they wane before me,
Quench'd their lustre -- fled their bloom,
While pale mem'ry, tearful, o'er me
Flings the shadow of the tomb.
Sadly sadly well-a-day,
Sadly sadly well-a-day,
Requiem like in murmurs stealing
Comes that old familiar lay.
  Sadly sadly well-a-day,
  Sadly sadly well-a-day,
  Requiem like in murmurs stealing
  Comes that old familiar lay.