Well, the years creep slowly by, Lorena
The snow is on the grass again
And the sun's low down in the sky, Lorena
The frost gleams where the flow'rs have been
But the heart beats on as warmly now
As when the summer days were nigh
The sun can never dip so low
A-down affection's cloudless sky

A hundred months have passed, Lorena
Since last I held your hand in mine
And I felt your pulse beat fast, Lorena
Though mine beat faster far than thine
A hundred months since flowery May
When up the hilly slope we climbed
To watch the dying of the day
And hear the distant church bells chime

We loved each other then, Lorena
More than we ever dared to tell
And what we might have been, Lorena
Had but our loving prospered well 
But then, 'tis past, the years are gone
I'll not call up their shadow forms
I'll say to them, "Lost years, sleep on!
Sleep on! nor heed life's pelting storms."

[The story of that past, Lorena
Alas! I care not to repeat
The hopes that could not last, Lorena
They lived, but only lived to cheat
I would not cause e'en one regret
To rankle in your bosom now
For "if we try we may forget,"
Were words of thine long years ago]

[Yes, these were words of thine, Lorena
They burn within my memory yet
They touched some tender chords, Lorena
Which thrill and tremble with regret
'Twas not thy woman's heart that spoke
Thy heart was always true to me
A duty, stern and pressing, broke
The tie which linked my soul with thee]

It matters little now, Lorena
The past is in the eternal past
Our heads will soon lie low, Lorena
Life's tide is ebbing out so fast
There is a future! O, thank God!
Of life this is so small a part!
'Tis dust to dust beneath the sod
Up there, up there, 'tis heart to heart
Up there, up there, 'tis heart to heart