Lyrics:
On one morning bright and clear,
To my old home I drew near,
Just a village down in sunny Tennessee;
I was speeding on a train,
That would carry me back again,
To my sweetheart who was waiting there for me.
It was but a few short years
Since I kiss'd away her tears,
As I left her at my dear old mother's side;
And each day we've been apart
She's grown nearer to my heart,
Than the night I asked of her to be my bride.
chorus:
We could hear the d—ies singing
As she said farewell to me,
Far across the fields of cotton,
My old homestead I could see;
When the moon rose in the glory,
Then I told life's sweetest story
To the girl I loved in sunny Tennessee.
As the train drew up at last,
Old familiar scenes I pass'd,
And I kissed my mother at the station door;
But as old friends gathered 'round,
Tears on ev'ry face I found,
And I missed the one that I'd been waiting for.
As I whispered “Mother dear,
Where is Mary? She's not here!”
All the world seem'd lost and sadness came to me;
For she pointed to a spot
In the little churchyard lot
Where my sweetheart sleeps in sunny Tennessee.
A copy of 1899 sheet music for the song is held in the University of Maine Vocal Popular Sheet Music Collection and may be viewed online at digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu
