Jeanie With The Light Brown Hair

I dream of Jeanie with the light brown hair,
Borne, like a vapor, on the summer air;
I see her tripping where the bright streams play,
Happy as the daisies that dance on her way.
Many were the wild notes her merry voice would pour.
Many were the blithe birds that warbled them o'er:
Oh! I dream of Jeanie with the light brown hair,
Floating, like a vapor, on the soft summer air.

I long for Jeanie with the daydawn smile,
Radiant in gladness, warm with winning guile;
I hear her melodies, like joys gone by,
Sighing round my heart o'er the fond hopes that die: --
Sighing like the night wind and sobbing like the rain, --
Wailing for the lost one that comes not again:
Oh! I long for Jeanie, and my heart bows low,
Never more to find her where the bright waters flow.

I sigh for Jeanie, but her light form strayed
Far from the fond hearts round her native glade;
Her smiles have vanished and her sweet songs flown,
Flitting like the dreams that have cheered us and gone.
Now the nodding wild flowers may wither on the shore
While her gentle fingers will cull them no more:
Oh! I sigh for Jeanie with the light brown hair,
Floating, like a vapor, on the soft summer air.

-Stephen Foster

This is another song that I first found as a barbershop arrangement. As well as singing in a quartet, I sing counter-tenor in a barbershop chorus, which for a few years competed with a slightly modified arrangement of this poem for contests. The arrangement was so beautiful that it was one of the first poems I thought of to analyze.
The rhyme scheme of Jeanie With The Light Brown Hair is quite simple; the even numbered lines of a stanza rhyme with the lines before them. Guile with smile, die with by, etc. It creates a simple format which makes the poem simple to read, giving more emphasis on the lyric and emotion of the poem.
This poem concerns the love the poet felt for Jeanie, and the memories he has of her. In the first stanza, the poet speaks of Jeanie, and describes the love he felt for her in the ways he saw her. Every metaphor is used to describe an aspect of her beauty. The second stanza describes the loss the poet feels without Jeanie, as well as his sadness. The reference to the "fond hopes that die" suggest that the poet's feelings for Jeanie were never particularly realistic, one definition of "fond" being that of foolishness. The third stanza still concerns his feelings of loss, but the sadness is not as pronounced.
In contrast to I Don't Know When You Stopped Loving Me, which had more feelings of sadness, love, and loss, Jeanie With The Light Brown Hair has the love and loss without quite so much blatant sadness. In this poem, particularly in the third stanza, the sadness is hidden behind the happy memories of Jeanie the poet has.
Jeanie With The Light Brown Hair is an intricate poem full of emotion, which changes in manner and intensity as the poem goes on. It forms a beautiful poem that makes an even more beautiful song.