Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair
Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair
Original Text
Foster's Melodies, No. 26 (New York: Firth, Pond & Co., 1854). Facsimile in Stephen Foster, Household Songs, Earlier American Music 12, introduction by H. Wiley Hitchcock (New York: Da Capo Press, 1973): 36-41. M780.82 E13 no. 12 Toronto Metro Public Reference Library.
1I dream of Jeanie with the light brown hair,
2Borne, like a vapor, on the summer air;
3I see her tripping where the bright streams play,
4Happy as the daisies that dance on her way.
5Many were the wild notes her merry voice would pour.
6Many were the blithe birds that warbled them o'er:
7Oh! I dream of Jeanie with the light brown hair,
8Floating, like a vapor, on the soft summer air.
9I long for Jeanie with the daydawn smile,
10Radiant in gladness, warm with winning guile;
11I hear her melodies, like joys gone by,
12Sighing round my heart o'er the fond hopes that die: --
13Sighing like the night wind and sobbing like the rain, --
14Wailing for the lost one that comes not again:
15Oh! I long for Jeanie, and my heart bows low,
16Never more to find her where the bright waters flow.
17I sigh for Jeanie, but her light form strayed
18Far from the fond hearts round her native glade;
19Her smiles have vanished and her sweet songs flown,
20Flitting like the dreams that have cheered us and gone.
21Now the nodding wild flowers may wither on the shore
22While her gentle fingers will cull them no more:
23Oh! I sigh for Jeanie with the light brown hair,
24Floating, like a vapor, on the soft summer air.
Publication Start Year
1854
RPO poem Editors
Ian Lancashire
RPO Edition
RPO 1998.
Rhyme
Form