Home, Sweet Home
Mid pleasures and palaces though we may roam,Be it ever so humble, there's no place like home;A charm from the sky seems to hallow us there,Which, seek through the world, is ne'er met with elsewhere.Home, Home, sweet, sweet Home!There's no place like Home! there's no place like Home!
An exile from home, splendor dazzles in vain;O, give me my lowly thatched cottage again!The birds singing gayly, that came at my call,--Give me them,--and the peace of mind, dearer than all!Home, Home, sweet, sweet Home!There's no place like Home! there's no place like Home!
How sweet 'tis to sit 'neath a fond father's smile,And the cares of a mother to soothe and beguile!Let others delight mid new pleasures to roam,But give me, oh, give me, the pleasures of home!Home, Home, sweet, sweet Home!There's no place like Home! there's no place like Home!
To thee I'll return, overburdened with care;The heart's dearest solace will smile on me there;No more from that, cottage again will I roam;Be it ever so humble, there's no place like home.Home, Home, sweet, sweet Home!There's no place like Home! there's no place like Home!
Words in this poem
- hallow v. t.
- To make holy; to set apart for holy or religious use; to consecrate; to treat or keep as sacred; to reverence. [OE. halowen, halwien, halgien, AS. halgian, fr. halig holy. See Holy.]
- gayly adv.
- With mirth and frolic; merrily; blithely; gleefully.
- soothe v. t.
- To assent to as true. Testament of Love. [Originally, to assent to as true; OE. so to verify, AS. ges to prove the truth of, to bear witness. See Sooth, a.]
- solace n.
- Comfort in grief; alleviation of grief or anxiety; also, that which relieves in distress; that which cheers or consoles; relief. [OF. solas, ssoulaz, L. solacium, solatium, fr. solari to comfort, console. Cf. Console, v. t.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Home, Sweet Home is in the public domain. This text is taken from Selections from American Poetry, with Special Reference to Poe, Longfellow, Lowell and Whittier, edited by Margaret Sprague Carhart, Project Gutenberg ebook #3650; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: John Howard Payne, Home, Sweet Home, (1823), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #3650, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/carhart-john-howard-payne/home-sweet-home.html, id L25954.
Form and metre
Home, Sweet Home is 24 lines in 4 stanzas of 6 lines each. The rhyme scheme is AABBBB, complete in 2 of its 4 stanzas. The metre is anapaestic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 83%).
See other poems in anapaestic tetrameter.
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 AABBAA roamA · homeA · thereB · elsewhereB · homeA · homeA
- 2 AABBCC vainA · againA · callB · allB · homeC · homeC
- 3 AABBBB smileA · beguileA · roamB · homeB · homeB · homeB
- 4 AABBBB careA · thereA · roamB · homeB · homeB · homeB
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 anapaestic tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Mid pleasures and palaces though we may roam, | 11 | ·/˘·/˘˘···· |
| Be it ever so humble, there's no place like home; | 11 | ··/·/˘····· |
| A charm from the sky seems to hallow us there, | 11 | ·······/˘·· |
| Which, seek through the world, is ne'er met with elsewhere. | 11 | ·········/· |
| Home, Home, sweet, sweet Home! | 5 | ····· |
| There's no place like Home! there's no place like Home! | 10 | ·········· |
| An exile from home, splendor dazzles in vain; | 11 | ·/···/˘/˘·· |
| O, give me my lowly thatched cottage again! | 11 | ····/˘·/˘˘/ |
| The birds singing gayly, that came at my call,-- | 11 | ··/˘/˘····· |
| Give me them,--and the peace of mind, dearer than all! | 12 | ········/˘·· |
| Home, Home, sweet, sweet Home! | 5 | ····· |
| There's no place like Home! there's no place like Home! | 10 | ·········· |
| How sweet 'tis to sit 'neath a fond father's smile, | 11 | ········/˘· |
| And the cares of a mother to soothe and beguile! | 12 | ·····/˘···˘/ |
| Let others delight mid new pleasures to roam, | 11 | ·/˘˘/··/˘·· |
| But give me, oh, give me, the pleasures of home! | 11 | ·······/˘·· |
| Home, Home, sweet, sweet Home! | 5 | ····· |
| There's no place like Home! there's no place like Home! | 10 | ·········· |
| To thee I'll return, overburdened with care; | 11 | ···˘//˘/˘·· |
| The heart's dearest solace will smile on me there; | 11 | ··/˘/˘····· |
| No more from that, cottage again will I roam; | 11 | ····/˘˘/··· |
| Be it ever so humble, there's no place like home. | 11 | ··/·/˘····· |
| Home, Home, sweet, sweet Home! | 5 | ····· |
| There's no place like Home! there's no place like Home! | 10 | ·········· |
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