Her Bright Smile Haunts Me Still

From the music collection of Susan Hopkins:  "Her Bright Smile Haunts Me Still", poetry by J. E. Carpenter and Music by William Thomas Wrighton.  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."  

This version by Peter Cooper & Eric Brace, recorded in 2008:

This is not to be missed.  It is an Edison Blue Amberol Cylinder recording, which dates it to between 1912-1929 :

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