American Old Time Song Lyrics: 38 If We Could Only Bring Them Back Again

Theater, Music-Hall, Nostalgic, Irish & Historic Old Songs, Volume 38

IF WE COULD ONLY BRING THEM BACK AGAIN.
Copyright, 1892, by T. B. Harms & Co.
Written and Composed by Harry Dacre.

For years I've been away, and came home yesterday,
But all my sweetest, fondest hopes are fled;
I find myself bereft of those I loved and left-
My father and my mother now are dead.
In anger I left home, to cross the briny foam,
Without a parting kiss of sweet good-bye;
Ah, little I thought then, I'd ne'er see them again,
That I had left them all alone to die

Chorus.
'Tis only when they're gone our words we think upon,
How often we have filled their hearts with pain;
When cruel death arrives, we'd almost give our lives,
if we could only bring them back again.

A stranger held the note which my poor mother wrote,
I read it through while scalding tears fell fast;
"My darling son," it said, "you'll read this when I'm dead,
Just kiss this letter and forget the past."
Those words ring in my ears, and. in the coming years.
They'll cling around my mem'ry with regret;
The harsh words said to her will oft and oft recur.
She may forgive, but I can ne'er forget.- Chorus.