John And Mary - Vacant Chair lyrics

(G.E. Root/H. Washburn) [Chorus:] We shall meet, but we shall miss him There will be one vacant chair We shall linger to caress him While we breathe our evening prayer When a year ago we gathered Joy was in his mild blue eye But a golden chord is severed And our hopes in ruin lie [Chorus] At our fireside, sad and lonely Often will the bosom swell At remembrance of the story How our noble Willie sell; How he strove to bear our banner Through the thickest of the fight And uphold our country's honor In the strength of manhood's night [Chorus] True, they tell us wreaths of glory Ever more will deck his brow But this soothes the anguish only Sweeping o'er our heartstrings now Sleep today, Oh early fallen In thy green and narrow bed Dirges from the pine and cypress Mingle with the tears we shed [Chorus]