Collected by Max Hunter (H-13)
For Mary C. Parler
Transcribed by Frances Majors
Sung by Fred Starr
Fayetteville, Arkansas
October 15, 1958
Reel 257-58, Item 21
So You've Come Back
So at last you have come back,
Since time once more has set you free,
To offer once again the love
Whose early hopes were bound on thee.
So you've come back to me and say
The old, old love is living yet;
You tried through all these weary years,
You've tried, though vainly, to forget.
Come close that I may see you now;
Your chestnut hair has turned to snow.
But 'tis the same old dear, sweet face
I loved so fondly years ago,
The same that on a summer day
Bent over me and kissed my brow;
Oh, perfect hour of trusting love,
I think they are all over now.
Oh, no, you must not hold my hand.
God never gives us back our youth.
The love you questioned from me then
Was yours, my friend, in perfect truth.
But woman's heart's a woman's way,
Sent doubt and anguish to my breast.
You left me and my heart is dead;
No power can e'er disturb its rest.
Forgive, you need not speak that word;
You never meant to do me wrong.
God sends this anguish to my heart
To teach me to be brave and strong.
Yet I would that I could vanish from
My heart of false, of doubt and woe.
I would to God we ne'er had met,
Or that I had not loved you so.
Farewell, I think I love you yet.
As friends to friends, God bless you, dear,
And guide you through life's troubled way
To where the skied are always clear.
Farewell, 'tis with an aching heart
I turn in grief to see you go;
But we are better far apart;
God helps us in our bitter woe.