Her Bright Smile Haunts Me Still - words by J. E. Carpenter, music by W. T. Wrighton (1864). Recorded by Edward Johnson, Victrola 64839 (1919), sung and recorded by Jeff Warner. SheetMusic(pdf)

It's been a year since last we met
We may never 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
In the midnight on the seas, her bright smile haunts me still

I have sailed a falling sky
And I have chartered hazard's path
I have seen the storm arise
Like a giant in his wrath
Every danger I have known
That a reckless life can fill
Though her presence is now flown, her bright smile haunts me still
Though her presence is now flown, her bright smile haunts me still

At 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 my aching eyes
Sweet dreams my memory fill
And from sleep when I arise, her bright smile haunts me still
And from sleep when I arise, her bright smile haunts me still

Ann and Frank Warner “got this song from Eleazar Tillett (1875-1968) in 1951. The Tilletts, a fishing family, lived in Wanchese, NC, on the Outer Banks. The song was composed in circa 1864, words by J. E. Carpenter, music by W. T. Wrighton, and went into oral tradition. It was published by Joanna Colcord in her 1924 book ‘Roll and Go’. She says that it is a ‘composed song of the last century’.”

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