From an email I received:

Hi Joe,

I am interested in finding the correct or maybe I should say "original" wording for a song that I heard sung by an old man in my area in the west of Ireland, about the time I was courting my wife, over forty years ago. I'm inclined to think that the words are not quite right because the line "Thinking I hear thee, Thinking I hear thee call" is in two verses. I'm sorry to say that although I can clearly remember the air of the song I'm not able to read or write music. It was sung a bit slowly and a little mournfully. That could be because the singer had recently lost his young son in a tragic drowning.

Mudcat has been one of my favoured sites for a number of years whenever I am looking for the words of songs.

Yours sincerely.
Seán

ABSENT

Sometimes between long shadows on the grass
The little truant rays of sunshine fall.
My eyes grow dim with tenderness awhile,
Thinking I see thee, Thinking I see thee smile

                                    2
And sometimes in the twilight gloom apart,
The tall trees whisper, whisper heart to heart.
From my fond lips the eager answer falls,
Thinking I hear thee, Thinking I hear thee call

                                  3
And sometimes too when I am all alone,
I miss the absent, absent from my home.
Your loving smile and sweetness I recall,
Thinking I hear thee, thinking I hear thee call

                                    4
Three things I ask of thee before we part,
One tiny corner of your loving heart,
One tender kiss and promise to be true.
That's all I ask love, that's all I ask of you.

                                    5
God's blessings guide and guard you night and day,
And may His guidance guide you on your way,
Until we meet on that bright eternal shore.
There we shall meet love, meet there to part no more.