A popular song from 1866.
Words by George W. Johnson.
Music by James A. Butterfield.
A sentimental parlor song of the 19th century. This is a Canadian poem written by George Washington Johnson, first published in a collection in 1864. It is a simple, graceful story about a happy couple grown old together. It is a reminiscence of youth by the aging husband in whose eyes the wife remains unchanged by age. James Austin Butterfield, an Englishman who moved to Chicago in 1856, ‘found’ the poem and set it to his famous melody.
The sheet music:
Accompaniment – player piano roll Duo-Art #100995
Played by Phil Ohman
Scanned by Ross Chapman, Australia:
Lyrics
- I wandered today to the hill, Maggie
To watch the scene below
The creek and the creaking old mill, Maggie
As we used to long ago
The green grove is gone from the hill, Maggie
Where first the daisies sprung
The creaking old mill is still, Maggie
Since you and I were young
Chorus
And now we are aged and gray, Maggie
And the trials of life nearly done
Let us sing of the days that are gone, Maggie
When you and I were young
- A city so silent and lone, Maggie
Where the young and the gay and the best
In polished white mansions of stone, Maggie
Have each found a place of rest
Is built where the birds used to play, Maggie
And join in the songs that were sung
For we sang as gay as they, Maggie
When you and I were young - They say I am feeble with age, Maggie
My steps are less sprightly than then
My face is a well-written page, Maggie
But time alone was the pen
They say we are aged and gray, Maggie
As sprays by the white breakers flung
But to me you’re as fair as you were, Maggie
When you and I were young
Sung here by Fred Feild.
Piano roll QRS 247 played by Lee S. Roberts: