The mother (George J. Webb)
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- Editor: David Anderson (submitted 2024-02-23). Score information: Letter, 8 pages, 461 kB Copyright: Personal
- Edition notes:
General Information
Title: The mother
Composer: George J. Webb
Lyricist: Reynell Coates
Number of voices: 4vv Voicing: SATB
Genre: Secular, Partsong
Language: English
Instruments: A cappella
First published: 1850 Mason & Law
Description:
External websites:
Original text and translations
English text
Mother, mother, I remember
When I climbed upon your knee,
And from New Year to December
One long smile you bent on me.
Mother, mother, sits it sadly
On my heart to think that I
Often in my boyhood, madly
Bade that bosom heave the sigh.
Mother, mother, I remember
When you blest the truant youth,
Fanning with your prayer the ember—
Fading ember of the truth.
Mother, mother, sits it sadly
On my heart to think that where
Wild adventure led me, gladly
I forgot your tender prayer.
Mother, mother, I remember,
On my arm you leant alone,
When by age’s bleak November
Withered hopes were round you strewn.
Mother, mother, sits it sadly
On my heart to think me, where
Manhood plead the debt, how badly
I returned your early care.
Mother, mother, I remember
(Ah, that dark, that fatal day!)
When, in dreary, chill December,
Wild I wept above your clay.
Ever—ever—vainly—sadly—
Now that I am growing gray,
I remember—oh! how madly—
All the love I tossed away!
Mother, mother, to remember
When I climbed upon your knee,
Till expires life’s latest ember,
One long sigh I heave for thee.
God!—when time life’s cord shall sever—
Strangers treading o’er my clay—
Oh forget—as I may never—
All the love I tossed away!