Homeland
The tour is over! We must part!Our mutual journey at an end.O bid farewell, with aching heart,To guide, philosopher, and friend;And note, as you remark 'Good-bye!'The kindly tear that dims his eye.
The tour is ended! Sad but true!No more together may we roam!We turn our lonely footsteps toThe spot that's known as Home, Sweet Home.Nor time nor temper can affordA more protracted trip abroad.
O Home! where we must always beSo hopelessly misunderstood;Where waits a tactless family,To tell us things 'for our own good';Where relatives, with searchlight eyes,Can penetrate our choicest lies.
Where all our kith and kin combineTo prove that we are worse than rude,If we should criticise the wineOr make complaints about the food.Thank goodness, then, to quote the pome,Thank goodness there's 'no place like Home!'
Words in this poem
- tour n.
- A going round; a circuit; hence, a journey in a circuit; a prolonged circuitous journey; a comprehensive excursion; as, the tour of Europe; the tour of France or England. [F. tour. See Turn, v. t.]
- aching a.
- That aches; continuously painful. See Ache.
- tactless a.
- Destitute of tact.
- kith n.
- Acquaintance; kindred. [OE. kith, cu, AS. cc known. Uncouth, Can, and cf. Kythe.]
- thank n.
- A expression of gratitude; an acknowledgment expressive of a sense of favor or kindness received; obligation, claim, or desert, or gratitude; -- now generally used in the plural. [AS. Þanc, Þonc, thanks, favor, thought; akin to OS. thank favor, pleasure, thanks, D. & G. dank thanks, Icel. Þ\'94kk, Dan. tak, Sw. tack, Goth. Þagks thanks; -]
- pome v. i.
- To grow to a head, or form a head in growing. [Cf. F. pommer. See Pome, n.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Homeland is in the public domain. This text is taken from Verse and Worse, Project Gutenberg ebook #36702; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Harry Graham, Homeland, in Verse and Worse (1905), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #36702, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/graham-verse-and-worse/homeland.html, id L23324.
Form and metre
Homeland is 24 lines in 4 stanzas of 6 lines each. The rhyme scheme is ABABCC, complete in 2 of its 4 stanzas. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 89%).
See other poems in iambic 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 ABABCC partA · endB · heartA · friendB · byeC · eyeC
- 2 ABAB-- trueA · roamB · toA · homeB · afford · abroad
- 3 -A-ABB be · misunderstoodA · family · goodA · eyesB · liesB
- 4 ABABCC combineA · rudeB · wineA · foodB · pomeC · homeC
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 iambic tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| The tour is over! We must part! | 8 | ········ |
| Our mutual journey at an end. | 8 | //˘/˘··· |
| O bid farewell, with aching heart, | 8 | ···/·/˘· |
| To guide, philosopher, and friend; | 8 | ··˘/˘˘·· |
| And note, as you remark 'Good-bye!' | 8 | ····˘/·· |
| The kindly tear that dims his eye. | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| The tour is ended! Sad but true! | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| No more together may we roam! | 8 | ··˘/˘··· |
| We turn our lonely footsteps to | 8 | ··//˘/·· |
| The spot that's known as Home, Sweet Home. | 8 | ········ |
| Nor time nor temper can afford | 8 | ···/˘·˘/ |
| A more protracted trip abroad. | 8 | ··˘/˘·˘/ |
| O Home! where we must always be | 8 | ·····/·· |
| So hopelessly misunderstood; | 8 | ·/˘˘·˘˘/ |
| Where waits a tactless family, | 8 | ···/˘/˘˘ |
| To tell us things 'for our own good'; | 8 | ·····/·· |
| Where relatives, with searchlight eyes, | 8 | ·/˘˘·/·· |
| Can penetrate our choicest lies. | 8 | ·/˘·//˘· |
| Where all our kith and kin combine | 9 | ··/˘···˘/ |
| To prove that we are worse than rude, | 8 | ········ |
| If we should criticise the wine | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Or make complaints about the food. | 8 | ··˘/···· |
| Thank goodness, then, to quote the pome, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Thank goodness there's 'no place like Home!' | 8 | ·/˘····· |
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.