1898
The Rosary
Composed by 
Ethelbert Nevin
Ethelbert Nevin Text by 
Robert Cameron Rogers
Robert Cameron Rogers "The Rosary" is a song by Ethelbert Nevin setting text by Robert Cameron Rogers. The song was a popular song of turn of the century opera singers such as Rosa Ponselle and Ernestine Schumann-Heink.
Text
The Rosary
by Robert Cameron Rogers
The hours I spent with thee, dear heart
Are as a string of pearls to me;
I count them over ev’ry one apart,
My rosary, my rosary!
Each hour a pearl, each pearl a prayer
To still a heart in absence wrung:
I tell each bead unto the end,
And there a cross is hung!
O memories that bless and burn!
O barren gain and bitter loss!
I kiss each bead and strive at last to learn
To kiss the cross, sweetheart, to kiss the cross.
Sheet Music