The following note was received from Garry Kaluzny in July 2000:

I was recently helping a friend search for online sheet music for the song "My Sweetheart Went Down With the Maine" and I found your page at where you attribute the words to that song to a poem written by Joseph Mills in 1960.

The words are from a song written by Bert Morgan in 1898. The sheet music is available online at the Lester S. Levy Collection of Sheet Music.

MY SWEETHEART WENT DOWN WITH THE MAIN

Attributed to Joseph Mills, 1960
(See note above)

Once I had a sweetheart
Noble, brave, and true.
Fearless as the sunrise
Welcome as the dew.
We had loved and waited.
He had named the day
And we had pledged to wed each other
In the month of May

Out on the high seas he sailed
Under the Red, White, and Blue
Faithful to his country and home
Faithful to captain and crew.

Once I had a sweetheart
Noble, brave, and true.
Fearless as the sunrise
Welcome as the dew.

Anchored at Havana
On a Cuban shore
Conscious of no danger
Dreaming love days o'er
Peacefully he slumbered
In his hammock bed
While stars with glowing beauty
Benediction said.

Then came the death-dealing crash
Wrecking the vessel in twain.
Down went my sweetheart to his death.
Down went the gallant ship Maine

Buried in a foreign land
In an unknown grave
Where the bells of liberty
Soon must ring to save.

Peacefully he slumbers
'Neath the torrid sun
And thru all time
'Twill bleed for him
This heart of mine he won.

Arouse ye my countrymen.
Let not his death be in vain.
Smite down the cowardly fears
That slaughtered the crew of the Maine!

CHORUS:
Once I had a sweetheart
Noble, brave, and true.
Fearless as the sunrise
Welcome as the dew.
We had loved and waited.
He had named the day
And we had pledged to wed each other
In the month of May
Now he fills an unknown grave
Beneath a torrid sun
And thru all time
'Twill bleed for him
This heart of mine he won.