A Parting Song

When will ye think of me, my friends?
When will ye think of me?--
When the last red light, the farewell of day,
From the rock and the river is passing away--
When the air with a deepening hush is fraught,
And the heart grows burden’d with tender thought,
Then let it be!

When will ye think of me, kind friends?
When will ye think of me?--
When the rose of the rich midsummer-time
Is fill’d with the hues of its glorious prime--
When ye gather its bloom, as in bright hours fled,
From the walks where my footsteps no more may tread--
Then let it be!

When will ye think of me, sweet friends?
When will ye think of me?--
When the sudden tears o’erflow your eye
At the sound of some olden melody--
When ye hear the voice of a mountain stream,
When ye feel the charm of a poet’s dream--
Then let it be!

Thus let my memory be with you, friends!
Thus ever think of me!
Kindly and gently, but as of one
For whom ’tis well to be fled and gone--
As of a bird from a chain unbound,
As of a wanderer whose home is found--
So let it be.

‘The sound of thy streams in my spirit I bear--
Farewell! and a blessing be with thee, green land!
On thy hearths, on thy halls, on thy pure mountain air,
On the chords of the harp, and the minstrel’s free hand,
From the love of my soul with my tears it is shed,
As I leave thee, green land of my home and my dead!