Home, Sweet Home

I love poetry. 

As a homeschool mom who leans heavily toward the Charlotte Mason philosophy of edcucation, I have been intentional about including poetry in the lives of my children. Yesterday, my daughter and I read Home, Sweet Home by John Howard Payne. Although it is a familiar poem, I still enjoy it every time I read it. Home, Sweet Home feels especially encouraging to me as a homeschool mom because it confirms, in a beautiful way, how natural it is to celebrate the sweetness of home. It really is possible to experience fulfillment and contentment at home, even if the rest of the world would have us to believe otherwise. Please read and be encouraged: There is a reason that we feel drawn to do what we do, and the peace of mind that we experience from doing it is not worth anything else that the world might offer. There is no place like home.

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 skies 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;

Oh, give me my lonely thatched cottage again!

The birds singing gayly, that came at my call-- 

Oh, 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!

~John Howard Payne


photo credit: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/93448689@N02/9687494422">Rose Cottage at Slad</a> via <a href="http://photopin.com">photopin</a> <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/">(license)</a>