"The Heart Bow'd Down" (Vocal). By Michael William Balfe (1808-70). From his opera 'The Bohemian Girl', 1843.
This online recording opens with a number from Benedict's Lilly of Killarney (The Rose of Erin). Like Sir Arthur Sullivan and Benedict, Balfe is indebted to the French opera comique and Italian influences that dominated the 19th-century English musical stage.
"The Heart Bow'd Down" was published many times in America and is a good example of the early Victorian senitmental ballad.
The heart bow'd down by weight of woe, To weakest hopes will cling; To thought and impulse, while they flow, That can no comfort bring. The mind will in its worst despair, Still ponder o'er the past; On moments of delight that were Too beautiful to last. With those exciting scenes will blend, O'er pleasure's pathway thrown; For mem'ry is the only friend That grief can call its own. To long departed years extend Its visions with them flown; For mem'ry is the only friend That grief can call its own.