"Take Me Back Home" (1866)
Song and Chorus.
Written and Composed
by William Shakespeare Hays, 1837-1907
from "Beautiful Songs of the South"

[Source: 130/103@Levy]

1.
Hark.! how the cold, bitter winds now are blowing!
Mother, dear mother, draw nearer to me.
Stay by my bedside-- I feel I am going
For from this cold, cruel world and from thee.
Weep not, for naught in the world can delay thee
From following me for I'll soon "go before;"
But oh! 'ere I die,-- my dear mother, I pray thee,
"Take me back home-- let me see it once more."

CHORUS
Stay by my bedside, I feel I am going
Take me back home-- let me see it once more.

2.
Oh! let me see, onve again that sweet river,
Up-on whose soft bosom I gazed when a child,
And looked all around me, and wondered if ever
The moon on a lovelier picture e'er smil'd.
Let me see the old homestead-- the house I was born in--
The flowers that grew 'round the porch, and the door;
Where_I've welcomed the sun when it rose in the morning--
"Take me back home-- let me see it once more."

(CHORUS)

3.
Mo-ther, 'tis hard, from our home we are driven
By war-- a mid strangers-- and none seem to care.
But oh there's a home that is ours in heav-en,
Where there is no war-- nor no enemies there.
Kiss me, dear mother, oh! why art thou sighing?
Let all thy sadness and sorrow be o'er. _
Mother, draw nearer, I'm weak-- oh! I'm dying--
"Take me-- oh! let me but see it once more."

(CHORUS)