We must get home--for we have been away <br />So long it seems forever and a day! <br />And O so very homesick we have grown, <br />The laughter of the world is like a moan <br />In our tired hearing, and its songs as vain,-- <br />We must get home--we must get home again! <br /> <br />We must get home: It hurts so, staying here, <br />Where fond hearts must be wept out tear by tear, <br />And where to wear wet lashes means, at best, <br />When most our lack, the least our hope of rest <br />When most our need of joy, the more our pain-- <br />We must get home--we must get home again! <br /> <br />We must get home: All is so quiet there: <br />The touch of loving hands on brow and hair-- <br />Dim rooms, wherein the sunshine is made mild--- <br />The lost love of the mother and the child <br />Restored in restful lullabies of rain.-- <br />We must get home--we must get home again! <br /> <br />We must get home, where, as we nod and drowse, <br />Time humors us and tiptoes through the house, <br />And loves us best when sleeping baby-wise, <br />With dreams--not tear-drops--brimming our clenched eyes,-- <br />Pure dreams that know nor taint nor earthly stain-- <br />We must get home--we must get home again! <br /> <br />We must get home; and, unremembering there <br />All gain of all ambitions otherwhere, <br />Rest--from the feverish victory, and the crown <br />Of conquest whose waste glory weighs us down.-- <br />Fame's fairest gifts we toss back with disdain-- <br />We must get home--we must get home again!<br /><br />James Whitcomb Riley<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-home-going/
