Henry Jackson Van Dyke

Born: November 10, 1852, Germantown, Pennsylvania.
Died: April 10, 1933, Princeton, New Jersey
Buried: Princeton, New Jersey

A HOME SONG

I read within a poet’s book
A word that starred the page:
“Stone walls do not a prison make,
Nor iron bars a cage!”
Yes, that is true, and something more;
You’ll find, where’er you roam,
That marble floors and gilded walls
Can never make a home.
But every house where Love abides
and Friendship is a Guest
Is surely home, and home-sweet-home
For there the heart can rest.

Written by Henry Van Dyke

From “The White Bees and Other Poems”