The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #145722   Message #3372520
Posted By: Joe Offer
05-Jul-12 - 04:33 PM
Thread Name: DT Study: I Cannot Call Her Mother / Stepmother
Subject: DT Version: I Can Not Call Her Mother
The Digital Tradition version is an exact transcription of the lyrics and tune from Huntington, Songs the Whalemen Sang:

I CAN NOT CALL HER MOTHER

The wedding rite is over
And though I turn aside
To keep the guests from seeing
My tears I can not hide

I wreathed my face in smiling
As I led my little brother
To greet my father's chosen one
But I could not call her mother

My father in the sunshine
Of brighter days to come
May half forget the shadow
That darkens our old home

His heart is no more lonely
But I and little brother
It's orphans we shall ever be
God can give us but one mother

They have born (sic) my mother's picture
From its accustomed place
And placed beside my father's
A younger, fairer face

And they have made her chamber dear
The boudoir of another
But I can not forget her
My own my angel mother

From Songs the Whalemen Sang, Huntington
From the Journal of the Lexington, 1853
@family @mother @marriage
filename[ NOTMOTHR
TUNE FILE: NOTMOTHR
CLICK TO PLAY
RG

This page which quotes a letter from The Lexington, has an additional verse about the stepmother singing the mother's song.