Civilian & telegraph. [volume] (Cumberland, Md.) 1859-1875, 1863-07-30
5NiGtellQntans.
TIE POETS ON HOME.
BY F. S C..

HOME What spot on earth so hal
lowed and sacred to our hearts as home
How iusepclablG from all our earthly
happiness is the very ilea of it . With
what glowing warmth does humanity 5
universal heart respond to the sentiment
so tendcrly and beautifully expressed in
the lines of Pane;
Mid pleasures and palaces tho we may
Be it ever so humble, there's no place like
home"
Home a necessity to mans very na-
ture. Eie has been put up on the home
model He has hedrt; therefore he
must have objects on which to lavish the
wealth of his affections; and these only
are to be found in the little world OF
home. The man whose spirit does not
instinctiyely accord the attrac tiveness
ana sacredness of the very idea of home
has fallen below the dignity of rational
and social intelligence. Such a man
needs no home, because he wants a heart.
Cowper seems to have derived exqus-
ite pleasure from the reflection that all
had not been lost in the fall; for he ex-
claims with evident emotion,-
Domestic happiness thou only bliss
OF Paradise that has survived tie fall.
Though few now taste thee unimpaircd
and free!
Thompson, in his Seasons. draws Il
ye.y natural and lfe-like picture OF Il
true home; his grouping together of the
family is one of the most fcIicltonS
srrok es Of his descriptive genius. OF
how many homes of which we wot is
this representation faithful type! Here
it is:
| The touch of kindred too and love he feels
! The modest eve, whose beams on his alone
Ecsta,ic shine: the little strong embrace
or prattlug children, twined around his
neck,
And emulous to please him, calling forth
The fond patclnal soul
This is tie life which those who fret in guilt,
Aud guilty cities, never know; the life,
Led by primcval ages, mcorrrpt,
When angels dwelt; and God himself, with
man!
There is more than elegant, harmo-
nious versifcation in the following lines
of Montgomery; there is a sentiment IN
them which speaks to cry heart, and
tonches a cord of sympathetic emotion
in eveIysou ul. Who does not love and re-
we're the memory of this good poet for
writing them?
sNIan, through all ages of revolving time,
Unchanging man, in every vary ing cllTe,
Deems his own land Of every land the pride,
Beloved of hraven Ger all the world beside;
His home the spot OF earth snprernely blest,
A deaIer weeter spot than all the rest
Everything about home has its pecu
liar association Of intc-ost to the mem
ory and heart. Things in themselves
small and tri vial, belong to the very
idea Without them. each in its place
home would not be home in the natural
life like sense of the word. Goldsmith
in his picture of rural home, humor-
ously gets off the following, and surely
there are but few who have not at times
had just such scene of the past re-
touched by memory:
around in sympathetic mirth.
Its tricks the tten tries;
The cricket chirrups on the HEARTH
The cracking fagot tiies;
while Byron is certainly happy in bring
ing out the idea of his verse, when he
saws with so much beauty and tender
ness:
sTis sweet to hear the watch-dog's honest
bark
Bay deep-mouthed welcome as we draw
near home;
Tis sweet te know there is an eye will mark
Our coming, and look brighter when we
come.
The physical world. just outside of
the charmed circle of home, Is neces-
sity to the effect of the scene. The i'm
mediate surroundings of the spot OF our
birth and childhood attach to the memo
IL Ana 4aa hallnued In our hearta