MY WIFE AWAY

O - where is my loved one tonight?
How lonely without her am I,
She turned all by darkness to light,
When warm with her love she was right.
The stars in the sky I can see,
All glittering, golden, and gay -
But no-one brings gladness to me,
Now my wife is away.

We are poor, if we have not a friend -
Friends are comforters sent from above -
Are angels which Heaven doth send,
To lift up our hearts with their love.
But-gone, is my friend, full of light,
And warm as a midsummer's day.
Now life is all turned into night,
With my wife gone away.

The spring - she may come in her time,
With her life-giving beams and her showers,
And the soft summer sunshine will shine,
Making Earth a sweet garden of flowers.
Spring - beautiful ever will be,
With sunshine and flowers to me -
With my wife far away.

I have longed for her love once again,
From me never more to depart.
My days were all winter and rain,
Till she set up her home in my heart.
Her presence was music and song;
And sweeter than dawning of day
I was happiness, all the day long,
Ere my wife soared away.

George Burgess - December 1882