To my firiend D. T. Morgan, Ponghkeepsie, N.Y.
"Bonnie Bess" (1869)
Ballad
Poetry/Words by George Cooper, 1838-1927
Music by John Rogers Thomas, 1830-1896

New York: C. H. DITSON & CO., 711 Broadway
Boston: OLIVER DITSON & CO.
Chicago: Lyon & Healy
Cincinnati: John Church, Jr.
Boston: J. C. Haynes & Co.
Philadelphia: C. W. A. Trumplee
Plate No. 25437
[Source: @NYPL]

1. O! the May, lovely May! tho' I never see you more,
Yet your pure and simple mem'ries come to bless;
And the girls, O the girls of golden time of yore!
There was none so fair and sweet as bonny Bess.
Merry days happy nights when we wandered long ago
Oft' I live again your glories in my dreams,
And the flow'rs dewy sweet I linger where they grew
And I cull them in the morning's rosy beams.

[Refrain sung after each verse]
O! the may, lovely May, tho' I never see you more,
Yet your pure and simple mem'ries come to bless;
And the girls, O the girls of the golden time of yore
There was none so fair and sweet as bonny Bess.

2. O'er the hill, o'er the dale, we have rambled far away
And I've help her little hand within my own;
And her cheeks bore the bloom of the blossoms of the may,
While her laughing eyes with love and beauty shone.
One by one Time has borne early joys beyond recall;
But he may not steal on bright and sunny tress!
Dearer far, sweeter far while life's darker shadows fall,
For it brings me dreams of you, my bonny Bess.