Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, SWISS HOME-SICKNESS, by ANONYMOUS


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

SWISS HOME-SICKNESS, by                    
First Line: "wherefore so sad and faint, my heart!"
Last Line: As in my own bright land
Subject(s): Homesickness;switzerland; Swiss


WHEREFORE so sad and faint, my heart ! -
The stranger's land is fair;
Yet weary, weary still thou art --
What find'st thou wanting there?

What wanting? -- all, oh! all I love
Am I not lonely here?
Through a fair land in sooth I rove,
Yet what like home is dear?

My home! oh! thither would I fly,
Where the free air is sweet,
My father's voice, my mother's eye,
My own wild hills to greet.

My hills, with all their soaring steeps,
With all their glaciers bright,
Where in his joy the chamois leaps,
Mocking the hunter's might.

Oh! but to hear the herd-bell sound,
When shepherds lead the way
Up the high Alps, and children bound
And not a lamb will stay!

Oh! but to climb the uplands free,
And, where the pure streams foam,
By the blue shining lake, to see,
Once more, my hamlet-home!

Here, no familiar look I trace;
I touch no friendly hand;
No child laughs kindly in my face --
As in my own bright land! --




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