Her Bright Smile Haunts Me Still

 Her Bright Smile Haunts Me Still

["Her Bright Smile Haunts Me Still," poetry by J. E. Carpenter and Music by William Thomas Wrighton before 1856.  An advertisement in the December, 1856, issue of The Journal of the Society of Arts states:  "Mr. Wrighton, who has won the suffrages of the million by his 'Postman's Knock' is equally a favorite in the drawing-room, witness his 'Smiles and Tears' and and these two beautiful songs."  The other song referenced in the advertisement is "On the Banks of the Beautiful River."

R. Matteson 2014]

 Her Bright Smile Haunts Me Still

’Tis years since last we met,
And we may not meet  again.
I have struggled to forget,
But the struggle was in vain;
For her voice lives on the breeze,
And her spirit comes at will.
In the midnight, on the seas,
Her bright smile haunts me still.

CHORUS: For her voice lives on the breeze,
And her spirit comes at will;
In the midnight, on the seas,
Her bright smile haunts me still.

As the first sweet dawn of light,
When I gaze upon the deep,
Her form still greets my sight,
While the stars their vigils keep;
When I close mine aching sight[1],
Sweet dreams my senses fill;
And from sleep when I arise,
Her bright smile haunts me still!

When I close mine aching eyes,
Sweet dreams my senses fill;
And from sleep when I arise,
Her bright smile haunts me still.

I have sailed ’neath alien skies,
I have trod the desert path,
I have seen the storm arise,
Like a giant in his wrath.
Every danger I have known,
That a reckless life can fill;
Yet her presence is not flown,
Her bright smile haunts me still!

Every danger I have known,
That a reckless life can fill;
Yet her presence is not flown,
Her bright smile haunts me still.

1. eyes