For Wortman
"The Dreams of Early Youth Have Fled" (not dated; never published)
Words and Music by John Hill Hewitt, 1801-1890.

[Source: manuscript photocopy from Emory University,
Special Collecions, The Robert W. Woodruff Library, Atlanta, GA]

1.
The dreams of early youth have fled 
The joy-pulse of my heart is dead; 
E'en Hope, which once my spirit fed, 
Now droops and fades away. 
Or, let me seek the silent dell, 
And to the lonely brooklet tell 
My story of our last farewell, 
My lost, lost Ellen Gray.

REFRAIN [sung after each verse]
My first, my only love who sleeps 
Down where the sombre i vy creeps 
Around the willow as it weeps 
O'er the grave of Ellen Gray.

2.
When sunshine bless'd life's early hours 
When songs of joy fill'd beauty's bowers, 
When every path was strewn with flowers, 
There came a darksome day, 
Death shadow'd Ellen cottage door. 
Angels her spotless spirit bore 
To realms of light­­ I never more 
Will see my Ellen Gray.