"The Past We Can Never Recall Jamie" (1868)
Words by Luke Collin
Music by Joseph Philbrick Webster, 1819-1875
(from "Songs of the Present Time --
Melodies of Beauty, Words of Sense, Ideas of Progress" [#8])
Response to "When You and I Were Young Maggie"
[of 1866, Words by George W. Johnson.
Music by James Austin Butterfield, 1837-1891]

1.
The past we can never recall, Jamie,
It fled with our youth long ago;
But its loves and its memories all, Jamie,
Are ours while we linger below.
The merry creek's bed may be dry, Jamie,
And hushed be the voice of the mill,
But the songs that they sung can not die, Jamie,
While pleasures of memory thrill.

CHORUS
And daisies will deck the green vale, Jamie,
And bird notes hang over the hill;
And other lips tell the sweet tale, Jamie,
When ours shall be silent and sill.
And other lips tell the sweet tale, Jamie,
When ours shall be silent and sill.

2.
The green grove is gone it is true, Jamie,
And broad blades of bright waving corn
Are gemm'd with white diamonds of dew, Jamie,
Where blithsome birds greeted the morn.
But the corn is as green as the grove, Jamie,
The birds sing as sweetly as then.
And I live the past o'er in your love, Jamie,
And feel its pleasures again.

(CHORUS)

3.
In that city so silent and lone, Jamie,
Where loved ones so peacefully sleep,
There rests a dear darling, our own, Jamie,
Whom angels have taken to keep.
The roses that blossom and fall, Jamie,
And cover her sunny brown hair,
Sweet fragrance will shed over all, Jamie,
When we shall be slumbering there.

(CHORUS)

4.
Say not that we're feeble and gray, Jamie,
For age can not lesson our love,
This earthlife is but for a day, Jamie,
Eternity waits us above.
The trials of life we have bourne, Jamie,
With trustfulness, patience and truth,
For the past let us nevermore mourn, Jamie,
There's a Realm of Perennial Youth.

(CHORUS)