WHEREFORE so sad and faint, my heart ! - The stranger's land is fair; Yet weary, weary still thou art -- What find'st thou wanting there? What wanting? -- all, oh! all I love Am I not lonely here? Through a fair land in sooth I rove, Yet what like home is dear? My home! oh! thither would I fly, Where the free air is sweet, My father's voice, my mother's eye, My own wild hills to greet. My hills, with all their soaring steeps, With all their glaciers bright, Where in his joy the chamois leaps, Mocking the hunter's might. Oh! but to hear the herd-bell sound, When shepherds lead the way Up the high Alps, and children bound And not a lamb will stay! Oh! but to climb the uplands free, And, where the pure streams foam, By the blue shining lake, to see, Once more, my hamlet-home! Here, no familiar look I trace; I touch no friendly hand; No child laughs kindly in my face -- As in my own bright land! -- | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...CARGO MOVING TO GAZA (1988) by MARVIN BELL SMOTHERED FIRES by GEORGIA DOUGLAS JOHNSON THE OCTOROON by GEORGIA DOUGLAS JOHNSON WE FACE THE FUTURE by GEORGIA DOUGLAS JOHNSON HER EYES TWIN POOLS by JAMES WELDON JOHNSON ODE TO THE JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY by SIDNEY LANIER |