Down East

Songs! Visions of my homeland,

come with strains of childhood,

Come with tunes we sang in school days

and with songs from mother's heart;

Way down east in a village by the sea,

stands an old, red farm house

that watches o'er the lea;

All that is best in me,

lying deep in memory,

draws my heart where I would be,

nearer to thee.

Ev'ry Sunday morning,

when the chores were almost done,

from that little parlor

sounds the old melodeon,

"Nearer my God to Thee, nearer to Thee,"

With those strains a stronger hope

comes nearer to me.