The cold skies of the North are behind me,

The Ohio’s broad flood I have crossed;

I am back once again in the Bluegrass,

And I feel like a child that’s been lost

But now found and returned to his mother,

And clasped to her warm loving breast—

Say, ye gods, if you’ll give me Kentucky,

My own State, you can keep all the rest!

There’s softness about her fair landscape,

There’s a brooding hush over her fields,

There’s a beauty mere money can’t purchase;

It’s a charm that the dear old State yields

To the children within her wide borders

To those who love her and know best

That Kentucky is Queen of her sisters,

And outranks everyone of the rest!