To my little Daughter Mattie Belle Hays.
"O, Let Me Kiss the Baby" (1867)
Song and Chorus
Written and Composed
[Words and Music]
by William Shakespeare Hays, 1837-1907

[Source: 106/070@Levy]

1.
O, eyes of heaven-ly beauty!
O, face so young and fair!
Methinks I see its mother
In ev-ery feature there;
Its eyes in beauty beaming,
In merry roguish glee,
O, let me kiss the baby,
For the smiles it gives to me.

CHORUS
O. let me kiss the baby!
How happy it must be,
To clap its little hands
In innocence and glee.

2.
Its hair in ringlets playing,
As if in roguish sin,
To hide its face so lovely,
Or shade its dimpled chin;
It knows no sin or sorrow,
Too young to feel a woe,
O, let me kiss the baby,
But once before I go.

(CHORUS)

3.
God bless the little darling,
May life be long and sweet,
And may no thorny pathway,
Be traversed by its feet,
May sorrow be a stranger
To such a tender heart!
O, let me kiss the baby--
One kiss before we part.

(CHORUS)