Humfrye’s Song
In good Shire earth my seed is sown,
I rest here with my thoughts, alone,
What more could any hobbit ask?
A groaning board, full pipe and flask.
Yet as I rest, I turn my eyes
To where the river meets the skies.
Hearth and home, hearth and home,
Lock the door and never roam.
Still the thoughts that softly pass,
Like quiet whispers in the grass.
I love the smell of roasting meat,
Of fresh-baked bread, fruit ripe and sweet,
With friends and kin to drink a toast –
These things which please a hobbit most.
Yet when to sleep I slip, content,
Come dreams unbidden, like lingering scent.
Hearth and home, hearth and home,
Lie abed and never roam.
Shut out the shades that importune
With visions of a blood-red moon.
Plain and simple folk are we,
We live our lives in peace, and free;
Each to his trade or craft is bent
At end of day to rest content.
Yet then strange fancies gently tease,
Like curling smoke rings on the breeze.
Hearth and home, hearth and home,
Set your roots in Shire loam.
Shun seductive siren calls
To elven glades or dwarven halls.
When in our green and pleasant land
We venture in a cheery band
O’er rolling hills or wooded ways,
By quiet streams to spend our days,
Yet there on the horizon far,
Portentous shines a beckoning star.
Hearth and home, hearth and home,
Stay close, resist the urge to roam.
Heed not the lure, be it e’er so strong
Of lands and creatures famed in song.
In dreams I drown in Anduin’s flood,
In dark, dire Mirkwood stills my blood,
From Misty Mountains’ dizzy heights
The cries of eagles pierce my nights.
But when I wake, I have no fear
To heed the summons which I hear.
Hearth and home, hearth and home,
Yet be not afeared to roam.
For on the wanderer’s return,
More brightly will the home fire burn.
