Respectfully inscribed to his friend, F. N. Crouch,
the composer of "Kathleen Mauv'reen"
"Let Me Kiss My Mother's Picture" *
[not dated, circa 1870; never published]
Words and Music by John Hill Hewitt, 1801-1890

* The last words of a young Norwegian, who arrived in Baltimore
in 1870.  He found himself friendless in a strange land, without
money and unable to speak our language.  His history was learnt
through an interpreter.  He left his home of wealth and luxury
because his father forbade his marrying a beautiful but poor
girl and died pressing his mother's picture to his lips.

[Source: manuscript photocopy from
Special Collections, Emory University,
The Robert W. Woodruff Library,
Atlanta, GA 30322-2870]

1. 
Let me kiss my mother's picture. 
See my lips are cold in death; 
Let me gaze upon her features­­ 
Bless her with my latest breath. 
Mother! Oh, how much I love you! 
Oh how dearly love you now! 
Do not chide me for my folly; 
Death's cold hand is on my brow.

REFRAIN [sung after each verse]
Mother, mother gentle mother, 
Do not let my fate distress you; 
Dying in a foreign country­­ 
Still I breathe my prayer­­
God bless you!

2. 
Lone and friendless I have wander'd 
To this land­­the exile's rest; 
When they sing the song of Freedom, 
And with equal rights are blest. 
Mother! fair hands nurse me kind-ly; 
Still­­they're stranger hands to me; 
None so tender as a mother's­­ 
Soothe my live long agony. 

3. 
Tell the lov'd one I left weeping, 
That, with you, she shares my heart, 
Tell her we will meet in heaven 
Never, never more to part. 
Mother­­Rhoda, both dear idols, 
Closely to my quenching lips 
I miss these well remember'd features 
Pictured in Death's dark eclipse.