If those lips could only speak

He stood in a beautiful Mansion
Surrounded by riches untold
He gazed at a beautiful picture
That hung in a frame of gold
‘Twas a picture of a lady
So beautiful young and fair
To the beautiful life-like features
He murmured in sad despair.

If those lips could only speak
If those eyes could only see
If those beautiful golden tresses
Were there in reality
Could I only take your hand
As I did when you took my name
But it’s only a beautiful picture
In a beautiful golden frame.

With all his great power and riches
He knows he can never replace
One thing in that mansion that’s absent
His Wife’s tender smiling face
And each time he sees her picture
These same words he’ll always say
"All my wealth I would freely forfeit
And toil for you night and day".

He sat there and gazed at the painting
Then slumbered forgetting all pain
And there, in that mansion in fancy
She stood by his side again
Then his lips they softly murmured
The name of his once sweet bride
With his eyes fixed upon the picture
He awoke from his dream and cried,

A popular sentimental ballad originally co-written and performed in the Halls by Will Godwin. It has remained popular for over 100 years, a standard song for certain type of sentimental crooner. It was played on the Titanic in the hours before the ship went down and has been recorded by jazz, country, blue grass and commercial Irish ballad singers.

One early 20th century form of marketing was the use of song postcards like the ones shown below. The artwork on the postcards was also used to produce magic lantern slides which could be hired or bought, presumably the slides were used at public singing events. This combination of song postcards and magic lantern slides seem to peak between 1910 and 1920.

As regards traditional singing, according to John Howson:

[the] song became popular with several Suffolk singers, particularly in the Blaxhall area where Ginette Dunn (in her book ‘A Fellowship of Song’) mentions Alice Messenger, Bessie Hammond, Percy Webb and Bob Hart as all singing it.

Sleevenotes Veteran CD Many a good horseman

Its popularity was not limited to Suffolk and it has been found in the repertoire of traditional singers throughout the English speaking world, especially in England and Ireland.

The wonderful John Foreman sings it:

A commercial Irish Ballad singer sings it (there are loads of other versions!):

Sources:

• VWML entry
• Kilgarrif Sing Us
• Lyrics: monologues.co.uk
• Sheet Music: Francis and Day’s Album of Old Time Favourites No 1, p28
• Bamforth Postcards from Huddersfield Exposed see also the Magic Lantern slides at Lucerna

Last Updated on April 22, 2023 by John Baxter | Published: April 22, 2023