Stay, Stay at Home, my Heart, and Rest
The speaker urges their heart to stay at home and rest, describing aimless wanderers as troubled, homesick, and buffeted by doubt. A bird safe in its nest, contrasted with flying birds threatened by a hovering hawk, reinforces the advice.
By Henry Wadsworth Longfellow · Genre: Lyric Poetry, Didactic Poetry · 157 words
First lines
Stay, stay at home, my heart, and rest; / Home-keeping hearts are happiest, / For those that wander they know not where / Are full of trouble and full of care; / To stay at home is best.
Weary and homesick and distressed, / They wander east, they wander west, / And are baffled and beaten and blown about / By the winds of the wilderness of doubt; / To stay at home is best.
Then stay at home, my heart, and rest; / The bird is safest in its nest; / O'er all that flutter their wings and fly / A hawk is hovering in the sky; / To stay at home is best.
Genres
- Lyric Poetry — Three rhymed stanzas address the speaker's own heart and repeat the counsel to stay at home.
- Didactic Poetry — The repeated assertion that staying home is best is supported by troubled wanderers and the comparison between nesting and exposed birds.
Tags
home · rest · homesickness · doubt · safety · lyric poetry
What this Textopian page supports
Stay, Stay at Home, my Heart, and Rest is listed on Textopian as a poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, dated Date unknown.
This source record anchors work identity, reading entry points, and catalog context for checking claims about the work.
- Work type: Poem
- Author: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
- Date: Date unknown
- Language: English
- Genres: Lyric Poetry, Didactic Poetry
- Length: 157 words
- Structure: 1 section, 3 paragraphs
- Reading fit: Standard (8th-9th Grade)
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- Work identity for Stay, Stay at Home, my Heart, and Rest by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
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