Free Illustrated Vintage Poem: The Lights of Home by Helen Marion Burnside

THE LIGHTS OF HOME
by HELEN MARION BURNSIDE

When shades of night are falling
And on the winding road,
With footsteps slow and weary,
The home-bound toilers plod.
How heart and feet grow lighter,
When through the mist and gloom,
With cheery ray across the way,
Shine out the lights of home!
O hallowed, homely beacon,
Where'er our steps may roam,
Shine out and guide, from far and wide,
The wanderers safely home!

When life's brief day is closing,
Its toils and sorrows past,
And when for peaceful slumber
We fold our hands at last,
How softly to our vision,
How sweetly through the gloom,
From mansions fair that wait us there
Will shine the Lights of Home!
O heavenly, homely beacon,
Where'er our feet may roam,
Shine out and guide, from far and wide,
The wanderers safely Home!

Poem originally published August 14, 1897. You can download this poem as a high-res 12" x 12" @ 300 ppi JPEG (without a watermark) for card making, collage, junk journal or scrapbooking projects here.


Public domain poem is from my personal collection. All digitized poems by FieldandGarden.com are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Please credit and link back to FieldandGarden.com as your source if you use or share this work.

Free Vintage Nature Poem: Back to the Farm (Part 4 of 4)

You can download this illustration by N.C. Wyeth for free as a 5" x 7" @ 300 ppi JPEG here.

BACK TO THE FARM
Part 4 (of 4)
by Martha Gilbert Dickinson Bianchi

Out in the dews with the spider at his shuttle --
In that half-dreaming hour that awakes the whippoorwill
And sets the nighthawk darting sinister and subtle,
F'er the full moon complacent loiters o'er the hill.

Back to the farm!
With the friendly brute for neighbor,
Where youth and Nature beckon, the tryst who would not keep?
Back to the luxury of rest that follows labor,
Back to the primal joys of hunger and of sleep!

Public domain poem is from my personal collection. All digitized poems by FieldandGarden.com are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Please credit and link back to FieldandGarden.com as your source if you use or share this work.

Free Vintage Nature Poem: Back to the Farm (Part 3 of 4)

You can download this illustration by N.C. Wyeth for free as a 5" x 7" @ 300 ppi JPEG here.

BACK TO THE FARM
Part 3 (of 4)
by Martha Gilbert Dickinson Bianchi

Off to the wood lot where brier bloom runs riot
And wary forest creature no hunter's snare deceives,
Virgin growth beguiling the solemn-hearted quiet
With songs of winter fires a-ripple through the leaves.

Up to the bars in the twilight's soft reaction --
Winding through the ferny lane to barns of stooping eaves
Welcoming at nightfall to simple satisfaction,
When the reeling swallow her dusky pattern weaves.

Public domain poem is from my personal collection. All digitized poems by FieldandGarden.com are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Please credit and link back to FieldandGarden.com as your source if you use or share this work.

Free Vintage Nature Poem: Back to the Farm (Part 2 of 4)

You can download this illustration by N.C. Wyeth for free as a 5" x 7" @ 300 ppi JPEG here.

BACK TO THE FARM
Part 2 (of 4)
by Martha Gilbert Dickinson Bianchi

Down in the hayfield where scythes glint through the clover;
Lusty blood a-throbbing in the splendor of the noon --
Lying 'neath the haycocks as castling clouds pass over,
Hearing insect lovers a-piping out of tune.

Caught in the spell of old kitchen-garden savors --
With luscious lines retreating to hills of musky corn,
And clambering grapes that spill their clustering flavors --
Each in fragrant season filling Plenty's golden horn.

Public domain poem is from my personal collection. All digitized poems by FieldandGarden.com are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Please credit and link back to FieldandGarden.com as your source if you use or share this work.

Free Vintage Nature Poem: Back to the Farm (Part 1 of 4)

You can download this illustration by N.C. Wyeth for free as a 5" x 7" @ 300 ppi JPEG here.

BACK TO THE FARM
Part 1 (of 4)
by Martha Gilbert Dickinson Bianchi

Back to the farm!
Where the bob-white still is calling
As in remembered drawings when youth and I were boys,
Driving the cattle where the meadow brook is brawling
Her immemorial wandering fears and joys!

Home to the farm for the deep green calms of summer,
Life of the open furrow, life of the waving grain --
Leaving the painted world of masquerade and mummer
Just for the sense of earth and ripening again.

Public domain poem is from my personal collection. All digitized poems by FieldandGarden.com are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Please credit and link back to FieldandGarden.com as your source if you use or share this work.