JOHN AND MARY lyrics - Vacant Chair

(G. E. Root/H. Washburn)



[Chorus:]

We shall meet, but we shall miss him

There will be one vacant chair

We shall linger to caress him

While we breathe our evening prayer



When a year ago we gathered

Joy was in his mild blue eye,

But a golden chord is severed

And our hopes in ruin lie.



[Chorus]



At our fireside, sad and lonely,

Often will the bosom swell,

At remembrance of the story

How our noble Willie sell;

How he strove to bear our banner

Through the thickest of the fight,

And uphold our country's honor

In the strength of manhood's night.



[Chorus]



True, they tell us wreaths of glory

Ever more will deck his brow,

But this soothes the anguish only

Sweeping o'er our heartstrings now.

Sleep today, Oh early fallen,

In thy green and narrow bed,

Dirges from the pine and cypress,

Mingle with the tears we shed.



[Chorus]