Under the violets blue, under the lilies white
Dearest, must I or you hidden be first from sight,
One left to mourn behind, one nevermore to sorrow?
O, while we live be kind, glad bells may toll tomorrow!

Waken fond heart to prize
Sweet days too brief- too brief for careless, vain forgetting,
Soft light from happy eyes
Heart knows no sorrow like the sorrow of regretting.
Look, from the morning skies
In clouds and in glory the golden sun is setting.

Over the violets blue cast wrong and strife behind,
O, while we live be true! O, while we live be kind!
Over the lilies white make sweet life's deepest sorrow,
Ring happy bells tonight, bells that may toll tomorrow.