HOME, SWEET HOME

Words: John Howard Payne (1791-1852), 1823
Tune: Henry Rowley Bishop (1785-1855), Sacred Harp, p. 161.

 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! 

 I gaze on the moon as I tread the drear wild
 And feel that my mother now thinks of her child
 As she looks on the moon from our own cottage door
 Through the woodbine whose fragrance shall cheer me no more.
   Home! Home! sweet, sweet Home...

 An exile from home splendor dazzles in vain
 Oh, give me my low, thatched cottage again,
 The birds singing gaily that come at my call,
 Give me them with that peace of mind, dearer than all.
   Home! Home! sweet, sweet Home...

 How sweet 'tis to sit neath a fond father's smile,
 And the cares of a mother to soothe and beguile.
 Let others delight 'mid new pleasures to roam,
 But give me, oh give me the pleasures of home.
   Home! Home! sweet, sweet Home...
 
 To thee I'll return overburdened with care,
 The hearts dearest solace will smile on me there
 No more from that cottage again will I roam,
 Be it ever so humble, there's no place like home.
   Home! Home! sweet, sweet Home...