"Home and Friends,
or When the Sun Goes Down" (23 Mar 1857)
Ballad
by Alice Hawthorne
[pseud. for Septimus Winner, 1827-1902]

New York: Firth, Pond & Co., 547 Broadway
Plate No. 4216
Engraver: Webb

1.
When the sun goes down, and the blue from out the sky;
As the day with its sunlight ends,
How I sigh for thee as I'm sitting all alone,
When I think of my home and my friends:
For still do I dream of the many, many days,
That came like a charm to me then,
And my heart would break if I though thou could'st forget,
Should I live to behold thee again.

2.
Tho' the day be bright and as cheerfull as old,
I rejoice not to share its light,
For my heart is sad in its loneliness away,
Be it day, or the solitude of night:
But oh! it is sweet, with a sorrow of my heart,
To pause as the stars descend,
And to think of thee in a region far away,
As the pride of my heart and a friend.

3.
When the sun goes down, in the silence of the night
Oh! my heart-- how it sighs for home,
Yet I still would stay in my solitude away,
If a change o'er thy spirit should come:
For all that I prize is thy merry merry laugh,
And my fate on thy friendship depends;
For my heart would break, if my hand thou would'st forsake,
Should I greet thee at home with my friends.