If ever you're going to love me...if ever you're going to love me, love me now while i can know / all the sweet and tender feelings which from real affection flow / love me now while i am living, do not wait til i am gone / and then chisel it in marble--warm words on ice-cold stone
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if you've dear, sweet thoughts about me, why not whisper them to me? / don't you know t'would make me happy and as glad could be / if you wait til i am sleeping ne'er to waken here again / there'll be walls of earth between us and i couldn't hear you then
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if you knew someone was thirsting for a drop of water, sweet / would you be so slow to bring it? would you step with laggard feet? there are tender hearts all 'round us who are thirsting for our love / why withhold from them what nature makes them crave all else above?
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i won't need your warm caress when the grass grows o'er my face / i won't crave for your love and kisses in my last, low, resting place / so then, if you love me any, if it's but a little bit / let me know while i am living, i can own and treasure it