BEFORE my bark the waves have curled
As it bore me thrice around the world;
And for forty years have met my eyes
The beauties born under wide-spread skies.
But though far and long may be my track,
It is never too far for looking back;
And I see them,— see them over the sea,
As I saw them when youth still dwelt with me,—
The brown-eyed girls of Jersey!
They are Quakers, half,— half maids of Spain;
Half Yankees, with fiery Southern brain;
They are English, French,— they are Irish elves;
They are better than all, in being themselves!
They are coaxing things,— then wild and coy;
They are full of tears,— full of mirth and joy.
They madden the brain like rich old wine:
And no wonder at all if they’ ve maddened mine,
Those brown-eyed girls of Jersey!
Some day, when distant enough my track,
To the Land of the Free I shall wander back;
And if not too gray, both heart and hair,
To win the regard of a thing so fair,
I shall try the power of the blarney-stone
In making some darling girl my own:
Some darling girl, that still may be
Keeping all her beauty and grace for me,—
Some brown-eyed girl of Jersey!