The Sweet Sunny South

C                                               G
Take me back to the place where I first saw the light
       C                         F
To the sweet sunny south take me home
          C           F           C           G
Where the mockingbird sings me to sleep every night
    C         G          C
Oh why was I tempted to roam

C                                      G
I think with regret of the dear home I left
       C                             F
Of the warm hearts that sheltered me there
        C           F       C        G
Of wife and of dear ones of whom I'm bereft
    C             G          C
For the old place again do I sigh

C                                                G
Take me back to the place where the orange trees grow
      C                     F
To my plot in the evergreen shade
          C            F                 C           G
Where the flowers from the river's green margins did grow
    C                  G                 C
And spread their sweet scent through the glade

C                                             G
Oh the path to our cottage they say has grown green
        C                      F
And the place is quite lonely around
        C            F            C           G
And the face and the forms of the ones that I loved
    C          G          C
Now lie in the cold mossy ground

C                                            G
Take me back let me see what is left that I knew
       C                        F
Can it be that the old house is gone
     C             F         C              G
Dear friends of my childhood indeed must be few
    C           G          C
And I must face death all alone

C                                      G
But yet I'll return to the place of my birth
          C                              F
Where the children have played round the door
           C             F             C              G
Where they gathered wild blossoms that grow round the path
     C           G            C
They'll echo our footsteps no more

C                                              G
Take me back to the place where my little ones sleep
    C                     F
My wife lies buried close by
       C            F             C           G
By the graves of my loved ones I long for to weep
    C             G           C
And among them to rest when I die