"Why Fall These Tears" (not dated)
Words by William W. Skatts
Music by John Hill Hewitt, 1801-1890

[Source: manuscript photocopy from
John H. Hewitt papers #31 (OP3 8)
Special Collections,
The Robert W. Woodruff Library,
Emory University,
Atlanta, GA  30322-2870]

1.
Why fall these tears, these useless tears? 
Why throbs this longing breast? 
Waked by the phantoms of lost years. 
From peace to wild unrest? 
Can I from out the withered past 
Brought but regret recall? 
Must hope and love, and life at last 
In one sad crevice fall? 

REFRAIN [sung after each verse]
Why fall these tears, these useless tears, 
These tears, these useless tears.


2. 
The shadows of the coming night 
Rise higher on the walls; 
And seem to drown the struggling light, 
While mystic voices call. 
The lost ones of the bygone hours, 
And bid them gently show 
That, ’mid sharp thorns, bloom’d sweeter flow’rs 
In days of long ago.

3. 
Then hope, oh heart, for soon the night 
Will come and with it rest; 
And then the morn, with glowing light, 
That makes the spirit blest. 
In Paradise, there thou’ll abide. 
No grief, no care shall come; 
And loving hands and heart shall guide 
The weary wand’rer home.