Lyr Req: Write a letter home to Mother

Subject: Lyr Add: FAR AWAY A LIGHT IS BURNING
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 29 Oct 12 - 11:43 AM

Oops! Forgot to check Spotify. It has the following recording, plus others by Malachi Cush, Dana Mulrooney, and Geraldine Sexton. They all seem Irish. I have boldfaced the words that are different from those in the poem posted above.


FAR AWAY A LIGHT IS BURNING
As sung by Foster & Allen on "100 Hits Legends" (2009)

Far away a light is burning in a window clear and bright.
Far away you're not forgotten; someone thinks of you tonight.

Far away a spray of ivy clings around your cabin door.
Far away a robin redbreast singing out in days of yore.

Write a letter home to mother; send your love to dear old dad.
Tell them that you're feelin' happy though uptight you may feel sad.

Never tell the one your troubles; smiles are better far than tears.
Tell them that you will be home soon though you may stay away for years.

Far away a light is burning in a window clear and bright.
Far away you're not forgotten; someone thinks of you tonight.
Far away you're not forgotten; someone thinks of you tonight.

Subject: Lyr Add: SEND A LETTER HOME
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 29 Oct 12 - 09:27 AM

I couldn't find a song or poem with the title "Far Away a Light Is Burning" but I found this, which adds one more to our collection. It matches—sort of—the lyrics quoted by Paul, the original requestor.

From Employes Magazine, Vol. 1, No. 3, (Rochester, NY: Buffalo, Rochester, and Pittsburgh Railway Company, February, 1913), page 20:

(I have modernized the spelling and punctuation.)


SEND A LETTER HOME.

Far away someone is waiting for a step that never falls.
Far away someone is listening for a voice that never calls.
It may be the golden summer; it may be the winter gray.
Summer, winter, spring or autumn, someone thinks of you today.

Far away a vine of ivy twines around the kitchen door.
Far away a robin redbreast sings as sweetly as of yore.
Far away a light is burning in a window clear and bright.
Far away you're not forgotten; someone thinks of you tonight.

Write tonight to home and mother; send your love to father too.
Show to them your best and brightest even though you're feeling blue.
Tell them not of petty troubles; smiles are far better than tears.
Send to them your love and longing although you've been gone for years.

—Gas and Electric News

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Write a letter home to Mother
From: GUEST,Guest
Date: 29 Oct 12 - 04:19 AM

The song you are looking for is called Far Away a light is Burning.. Hope this helps

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Write a letter home to Mother
From: GUEST
Date: 09 May 12 - 05:20 AM

I think I'm looking for the same song. My Nanna has asked me to look out for it. She's from Donegal and remembers it from when she was younger. The lyrics she told me were:
"Write a letter home to mother, don't forget your good old dad. Tell them that you are quite happy, though at times you may be sad"
Seems we're after the same song!

Subject: Lyr Add: DON'T FORGET TO WRITE A LETTER (F Merton)
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 08 Jul 10 - 09:28 PM

The National Library of Australia has this sheet music. It seems to have been a popular theme!


DON'T FORGET TO WRITE A LETTER
Words and music by Fred J. Merton.
Melbourne: Fred J. Merton, [between 1914 and 1918?]

1. Do you know that since you left her,
In your mother's glossy hair,
Silver threads they are entwining
Tell of years of toil and care?
When across the seas you wander,
And in other lands you'll chance to roam,
Remember each day how the old folks they pray
For their long lost once more to be home.

CHORUS: Don't forget to write a letter when you wander far away.
Don't forget your aged mother or your father old and grey.
Don't forget two hearts are beating for their boy across the foam.
Don't forget to write a letter to the dear old folks at home.

2. Years have passed since last you saw them,
When they said that long goodbye.
Still the old folks keep on hoping,
That the time for news is nigh.
Though sure their hears they are breaking,
Those fond hopes they seem to pass away.
Just be a good lad; make their lives not so sad.
Write a few lines and send them today.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Write a letter home to Mother
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 08 Jul 10 - 09:15 PM

The British Library has sheet music described thus:

WRITE A LETTER HOME TO MOTHER
J. Sullivan, © 1924.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Write a letter home to Mother
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 08 Jul 10 - 08:18 PM

I found this interesting quote in Minnesota History, Volume 44 (St. Paul: Minnesota Historical Society, 1974), page 135:

Occasional pathetic ballads continued to appear into the second decade of the new century – songs of neglected children like "Lonely Little Refugee" (1914) and "Mister, Won't You Buy a Paper?" (1910) by Eleanor Langdon of Minneapolis, who also contributed a heart-touching number called "Write a Letter Home to Mother" (1913). More in keeping with the changing spirit of the times were such compositions as "Oh! Sam! I Envy You" (1911) by Harry DeRoe Jones, a Minneapolis piano tuner and one-time newspaper editor at St. Cloud and Chatfield, and "Thtop Your Thtuttering, Jimmy" (1919), a St. Paul-published World War I song by Hal Blake Cowles....

This publication is classified as "snippet view" by Google Books, so I wasn't even able to find the title of the article, but it seems to concern music published in Minnesota. WorldCat shows that The Minnesota Historical Society has the sheet music in its library. I still doubt that it's the song you want.

Subject: Lyr Add: WRITE A LETTER HOME TO MOTHER
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 08 Jul 10 - 07:51 PM

Indiana State University has this sheet music. Unfortunately, it's still not the song you quoted! (Click to download PDF file.)


WRITE A LETTER HOME TO MOTHER.
Words by J. Will Callahan. Music by Frank C. Huston.
New York: The Frank C. Huston Co., 1917.

1. I was seated one day in a Y.M.C.A.,
Where I dropped in to read for a while,
When my gaze chanced to fall on a sign on the wall,
And it brought a tear and a smile.
Each word held a thrill of both joy and regret,
For here's what I read, and shall never forget:

CHORUS: "Write a letter home to mother. It will fill her heart with joy
Just to know she's not forgotten by her absent boy.
Think how much she always loved you; think how much she always will.
Write a letter home to mother. Tell her that you love her still."

2. Then my eyes filled with tears as I thought of the years,
And how oft I had failed to reply,
And I picked up a pen and I wrote there and then,
"I'll be home, Mother, dear, by and by."
And since then, no matter whate'er may befall,
I've heeded the words of that sign on the wall.

Subject: Lyr Add: WRITE A LETTER HOME TO MOTHER
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 08 Jul 10 - 05:43 PM

Not the same, evidently, but perhaps worth having here anyway:

This poem was printed in Sunset, Volume 24 (San Francisco: Southern Pacific Co., 1910), page 581:


WRITE A LETTER HOME TO MOTHER.
Mrs. Henrietta E. Robinson

Write a letter home to mother.
Don't delay a single day.
Time is flying very swiftly.
Weeks and months soon pass away.

Mother's waiting for the letter
That you promised you would write.
Sacrifice a little pleasure.
Write that letter home to-night.

Every night your mother's praying
For the welfare of her boy.
Write and tell her that you love her.
That will fill her heart with joy.

Tell her you so well remember
That she taught you how to say
"Our Father who art in Heaven,
Help and guard us, day by day."

Tell her how you've faced temptation
With a deep and firm resolve,
That whatever might betide you,
You would put your trust in God.

Tell her of your last achievement,
How you've failed and tried again,
Till at last you won the victory,
Making for yourself a name.

Mother's growing old and feeble.
You would scarcely know her now.
One can see the lines are deep'ning
In her once fair, placid brow.

Soon your mother will be going
Through the "gates that stand ajar."
Write and tell her you are coming,
Else let her know just where you are.

No longer keep your mother waiting
For the letter you should write.
Sacrifice a little pleasure.
Write that letter home to-night.

Subject: Lyr Req: Write a letter home to Mother
From: GUEST,Paul
Date: 07 Jul 10 - 03:30 AM

Hi, I am looking for the lyrics of a song that I dont know the name of but I think starts with,

Far away a spray of ivy clings around yon cabin door,
Far away the robin redbreast sings of sweeter days of yore,
Far away a light is burning in yon window clear and bright,
Far away but not forgotten someone thinks of you tonight.

Write a letter home to Mother, send your love to dear old Dad,
Tell them you are feeling happy, though you may be feeling sad,