Home
How brightly glistening in the sunThe woodland ivy plays!While yonder beeches from their barksReflect his silver rays.
That sun surveys a lovely sceneFrom softly smiling skies;And wildly through unnumbered treesThe wind of winter sighs:
Now loud, it thunders o'er my head,And now in distance dies.But give me back my barren hillsWhere colder breezes rise;
Where scarce the scattered, stunted treesCan yield an answering swell,But where a wilderness of heathReturns the sound as well.
For yonder garden, fair and wide,With groves of evergreen,Long winding walks, and borders trim,And velvet lawns between;
Restore to me that little spot,With gray walls compassed round,Where knotted grass neglected lies,And weeds usurp the ground.
Though all around this mansion highInvites the foot to roam,And though its halls are fair within--Oh, give me back my HOME!
Words in this poem
- yonder adv.
- At a distance, but within view. [OE. yonder, ýonder; cf. OD. ginder, Goth. jaindr there. Yond, adv.]
- unnumbered a.
- Not numbered; not counted or estimated; innumerable.
- scarce a.
- Not plentiful or abundant; in small quantity in proportion to the demand; not easily to be procured; rare; uncommon. [OE. scars, OF. escars, eschars, LL. scarpsus, for L. excerptus, p. p. of excerpere to pick out, and hence to contract, to shorten; ex (see Ex-) + carpere. See C]
- compassed a.
- Rounded; arched.
- mansion n.
- A dwelling place, -- whether a part or whole of a house or other shelter. [OF. mansion, F. maison, fr. L. mansio a staying, remaining, a dwelling, habitation, fr. manere, mansum, to stay, dwell; akin to Gr. Manse, Manor, Menagerie, Men]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Home is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems by Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell, Project Gutenberg ebook #1019; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Charlotte, Emily and Anne Brontë, Home, in Poems by Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell (1846), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1019, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/bronte-poems/home.html, id L13253.
Form and metre
Home is 28 lines in 7 stanzas of 4 lines each. The metre is common measure, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 96%). 96% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.1 syllables. 29% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in common measure.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 1 -A-A sun · playsA · barks · raysA
- 2 -A-A scene · skiesA · trees · sighsA
- 3 -A-A head · diesA · hills · riseA
- 4 -A-A trees · swellA · heath · wellA
- 5 -A-A wide · evergreenA · trim · betweenA
- 6 -A-A spot · roundA · lies · groundA
- 7 -A-A high · roamA · within · homeA
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against common measure. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| How brightly glistening in the sun | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| The woodland ivy plays! | 6 | ·/·/˘· |
| While yonder beeches from their barks | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| Reflect his silver rays. | 6 | ˘/·/˘· |
| That sun surveys a lovely scene | 8 | ··˘/·/˘· |
| From softly smiling skies; | 6 | ·/˘/˘· |
| And wildly through unnumbered trees | 8 | ·/˘·˘/˘· |
| The wind of winter sighs: | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Now loud, it thunders o'er my head, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| And now in distance dies. | 6 | ···/˘· |
| But give me back my barren hills | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Where colder breezes rise; | 6 | ·/˘/˘· |
| Where scarce the scattered, stunted trees | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| Can yield an answering swell, | 7 | ···/˘˘· |
| But where a wilderness of heath | 8 | ···/˘˘·· |
| Returns the sound as well. | 6 | ˘/···· |
| For yonder garden, fair and wide, | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| With groves of evergreen, | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Long winding walks, and borders trim, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| And velvet lawns between; | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| Restore to me that little spot, | 8 | ˘/···/˘· |
| With gray walls compassed round, | 7 | ···/˘˘· |
| Where knotted grass neglected lies, | 8 | ·/˘·˘/˘· |
| And weeds usurp the ground. | 6 | ···/·· |
| Though all around this mansion high | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Invites the foot to roam, | 6 | ˘/···· |
| And though its halls are fair within-- | 8 | ········ |
| Oh, give me back my HOME! | 6 | ······ |
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.