How Sweet Are the Roses

A popular song from 1853
Words and music by Alice Hawthorne (Septimus Winner)

The sheet music:

How-Sweet-Are-the-Roses – Sheet MusicDownload

Accompaniment by Benjamin R. Tubb:

How-Sweet-Are-the-Roses – MIDIDownload

Lyrics

  1. How sweet, how sweet are the roses
    And how we watch their bloom;
    We gather them in their glory
    And scatter them over the tomb.
    But weeds unheeded lift their heads,
    And in their stillness wave
    Like better friends in silent hours
    Beside the lonely grave.
  2. How fair, how fair are the lilies;
    How dear to the heart and the eye;
    And how we wait for their beauty
    And gather them ‘ere they die;
    But weeds, Alas, how sad it seems
    To pass them coldly by,
    For they have buds and blossoms too,
    And flower ‘ere they die.
  3. Alas, alas how they perish
    And pass with summer away;
    The Rose, the Weed and the Lily
    Beside each other decay;
    But weeds must bud and blossom too,
    And flower ‘ere they die,
    Then pluck them not in cold disgust
    And cast them from the eye

Sung here by Vancha March: