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Home

Away from home my love, my wife!

How slow the lingering moments roll!

Nature with every charm is rife,

And Autumn casts her solemn stole

    O'er glem and mountain, wood and plain.

But home has charms of stronger spell,

And voices which I feel more dear

Than all those charms and sounds which tell

The closing of "the rolling year;"

    To these my heart returns again.

Away from home my love, my wife!

I hear no more our prattlers' mirth,

Buoyant with health, and joy and life;

Nor mark at eve, around the hearth,

    Those smiles and voices which we love.

At noon I pause to hear them rush

Tumultuous from the distant school,

With sparkling eye and rosy blush;

And when returns the evening cool,

    Their prayer to him who rules above!

Away from home my love, my wife!

The morning dawns in splendor bright,

And busy Nature wakes to life;

But all is strange - no sounds delight

    My sadden'd heart - no happy home

Invites me to repose and peace.

I linger on the distant hill

And muse - and ask, why do not cease

These yearnings strong? but deeper still

    They come, whe'er I rest or roam.

Away from home my love, my wife!

In dreams the midnight watch is spent;

I saw thee bright and full of life,

Like some good angel kindly sent,

To calm Affection's troubled strife,

    Standing beside my couch - and felt

Thy gentle hand upon my heart,

Thy breath upon my glowing cheek;

I thought we were not far apart,

I almost thought I heard thee speak,

    While kneeling where so oft we've knelt.

Away from home my love, my wife!

I meet no greetings like to thine -

No hand so warm, instinct with life;

No smile that answers back to mine.

    The world is all too cold for me;

Friendship is a deceitful sound -

I would not leave my home nor thee,

For all those pleasures which abound

In mirth, in song, in revelry;

    They'd keep my heart, oh God, from thee.

Lancaster, Pa., Oct. 3, 1838.

Abraham Messler

New Series 2:13, p. 52

1841.05.29

From the Northern Light