The Old Home Calls
Come back to me, little dancing feet that roam the wide world o'er,I long for the lilt of your flying steps in my silent rooms once more;Come back to me, little voices gay with laughter and with song,Come back, little hearts beating high with hopes, I have missed and mourned you long.
My roses bloom in my garden walks all sweet and wet with the dew,My lights shine down on the long hill road the waning twilights through,The swallows flutter about my eaves as in the years of old,And close about me their steadfast arms the lisping pine trees fold.
But I weary for you at morn and eve, O, children of my love,Come back to me from your pilgrim ways, from the seas and plains ye rove,Come over the meadows and up the lane to my door set open wide,And sit ye down where the red light shines from my welcoming fireside.
I keep for you all your childhood dreams, your gladness and delights,The joy of days in the sun and rain, the sleep of care-free nights,All the sweet faiths ye have lost and sought again shall be your own,Darlings, come to my empty heart—I am old and still and alone!
Words in this poem
- lilt v. i.
- To do anything with animation and quickness, as to skip, fly, or hop. [Cf. Norw. lilla, lirla, to sing in a high tone.]
- waning n.
- The act or process of waning, or decreasing.
- morn n.
- The first part of the day; the morning; -- used chiefly in poetry. [OE. morwen, morgen, AS. morgen; akin to D. morgen, OS. morgan, G. morgen, Icel. morginn, morgunn, Sw. morgon, Dan. morgen, Goth. maúrgins. Cf. Morrow, Morning.]
- fireside n.
- A place near the fire or hearth; home; domestic life or retirement.
- childhood n.
- The state of being a child; the time in which persons are children; the condition or time from infancy to puberty. [AS. cildhad; cild child + -had. See Child, and hood.]
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Old Home Calls is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Watchman and Other Poems (New York: Frederick A. Stokes Company, 1917; Toronto: McClelland, Goodchild and Stewart, 1916), Internet Archive; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: L. M. Montgomery, The Old Home Calls, in The Watchman and Other Poems (1916), text of Internet Archive, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/montgomery-watchman/the-old-home-calls.html, id L29432.
Form and metre
The Old Home Calls is 16 lines in 4 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes AABB. The metre is iambic octameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 73%).
See other poems in iambic octameter.
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 AABB o'erA · moreA · songB · longB
- 2 AABB dewA · throughA · oldB · foldB
- 3 AABB loveA · roveA · wideB · firesideB
- 4 AABB delightsA · nightsA · ownB · aloneB
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 octameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Come back to me, little dancing feet that roam the wide world o'er, | 15 | ····/˘/˘······· |
| I long for the lilt of your flying steps in my silent rooms once more; | 17 | ·······/˘···/˘··· |
| Come back to me, little voices gay with laughter and with song, | 15 | ····/˘/˘··/˘··· |
| Come back, little hearts beating high with hopes, I have missed and mourned you long. | 17 | ··/˘·/˘·········· |
| My roses bloom in my garden walks all sweet and wet with the dew, | 16 | ·/˘···/˘········ |
| My lights shine down on the long hill road the waning twilights through, | 15 | ··········/˘/·· |
| The swallows flutter about my eaves as in the years of old, | 15 | ·/˘/˘·········· |
| And close about me their steadfast arms the lisping pine trees fold. | 15 | ······/···/˘··· |
| But I weary for you at morn and eve, O, children of my love, | 16 | ··/˘·······/˘··· |
| Come back to me from your pilgrim ways, from the seas and plains ye rove, | 16 | ······/˘········ |
| Come over the meadows and up the lane to my door set open wide, | 16 | ···/·········/˘· |
| And sit ye down where the red light shines from my welcoming fireside. | 16 | ···········/˘/˘· |
| I keep for you all your childhood dreams, your gladness and delights, | 15 | ······/···/˘·˘/ |
| The joy of days in the sun and rain, the sleep of care-free nights, | 15 | ··············· |
| All the sweet faiths ye have lost and sought again shall be your own, | 15 | ·········˘/···· |
| Darlings, come to my empty heart—I am old and still and alone! | 16 | /˘···/˘·······˘/ |
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.