Another interesting variant, from the sheet music at Tulane University:


THE ROSE OF ALABAMA
A. B. Meek, 1847
Published by W. T. Mayo of New Orleans

VERSE 1: I loved, in boyhood’s happy time,
When life was like a minstrel’s rhyme
And cloudless as my native clime,
The Rose of Alabama.

CHORUS: Oh! lovely Rose! The Rose of Alabama,
The sweetest flower that earth knows
Is the Rose of Alabama.
The sweetest flower that earth knows
Is the Rose of Alabama.

2. One pleasant, balmy night in June
When swung in silvery floods, the moon,
My heart awoke love’s vesper tune
For Rose of Alabama!

3. She caught the strain, and to the bower,
Impelled by love and music’s power,
Stole like an angel at that hour
The Rose of Alabama!

4. Beside me there her form she placed.
My arm stole gently round her waist
And earth seemed with new beauty graced
By Rose of Alabama!

5. The breeze and streamlet ceased their tune.
Like wingèd gems the fireflies shone.
The flowers gazed envious on my own
Sweet Rose of Alabama.

6. ’Tis vain our mutual vows to tell;
One strain upon my plaintive shell
And then I bade a sad farewell
To Rose of Alabama!

7. Long years have passed; by fortune driven,
I wander ’neath a stranger heaven,
But ah! Love’s ties are not yet riven
From Rose of Alabama!

8. Hope smiles upon my pilgrim way;
Ere long, my feet shall homeward stray
And time bring ’round my nuptial day
With Rose of Alabama!

9. Then, shrine-like, in my native land—
Love’s Eden!—shall my cottage stand
With happiness on every hand!
Sweet Rose of Alabama!