Rose And Rue

Mamie Dean, ah, Mamie Dean, Do you remember where The willows used to screen The water flowing fair? The mill-stream’s banks of green Where first our love begun, When you were seventeen, And I was twenty-one?

Mamie Dean, ah, Mamie Dean, Do you remember how From th’ old bridge we would lean-- The bridge that’s broken now-- To watch the minnows sheen Through ripples of the Run, When you were seventeen, And I was twenty-one?

Mamie Dean, ah, Mamie Dean, Do you remember, too, The old beech-tree, between Whose roots the windflowers grew? Where oft we sat at E’en, When stars were few or none, When you were seventeen, And I was twenty-one?

Mamie Dean, ah, Mamie Dean, The bark is grown around The names I cut therein, And the true-love knot that bound; The love-knot, clear and clean, I carved when our love begun, When you were seventeen, And I was twenty-one.

Mamie Dean, ah, Mamie Dean, The roof of the farm-house gray Is fallen and mossy green; Its rafters rot away: The old path scarce is seen Where oft our feet would run, When you were seventeen, And I was twenty-one.

Mamie Dean, ah, Mamie Dean, Through each old tree and bough The lone winds cry and keen-- The place is haunted now With ghosts of what-has-been, And dreams of love-long-done, When you were seventeen, And I was twenty-one.

Mamie Dean, ah, Mamie Dean, There, in your world of wealth, There, where you move a queen, Broken in heart and health, Does there ever rise a scene Of days, your thought would shun, When you were seventeen, And I was twenty-one?

Mamie Dean, ah, Mamie Dean, Here, ’mid the rose and rue, Would God that your grave were green, And I were lying, too! Here on the hill, I mean, Where oft we laughed in the sun, When you were seventeen, And I was twenty-one.