The Pink Carnation

I may walk until I’m fainting, I may write until I’m blinded, I might drink until my back teeth are afloat, But I can’t forget my ruin and the happy days behind it, When I wore a pink carnation in my coat. Oh, I thought that time could conquer, and I thought my heart would harden, But it sends a sudden lump into my throat, When I think of what I have been, and the cottage and the garden, When I wore a pink carnation in my coat. God forgive you, girl, and bless you! Let no line of mine distress you – I am sorry for the bitter lines I wrote; But remember, and think kindly, for we met and married blindly, When I wore a pink carnation in my coat.