Pierce Egan the Younger was a novelist and journalist who lived between 1814 and 1880. The author of several popular novels, he occasionally wrote poetry, such as the one below which originally appeared in the Home Circle. [1]

Verse I

I wander tho’ vast pathless forests wild,

By the bright flower’d banks of mighty streams;

And thoughts of home, while yet a guileless child,

Up-rise and move my soul with still calm dreams.

Dear childhood’s home, I gaze upon thee now:—

A cot embower’d in the greenest trees,

Dear Childhood’s home, I gaze upon thee now

A cot embower’d in green trees

Chorus

Thy soft cool air plays on my laughing brow

And sweet old tones are borne on ev’ry breeze,

And sweet old tones are borne on ev’ry breeze,

And sweet old tones are borne on ev’ry breeze.

Verse II

Well I recall my mother’s earnest care,

Her watchful love, her tenderness untir’d:

Unwearied nurse, who would no duty spare,

In pain or health, by love alone inspired.

And now I feel, that I am far away,

The priceless value of her love for me;

And now I know that I can ne’er repay

That trying trust fulfilled so faithfully.

[1] Pierce Egan, ‘The Emigrant’, Home Circle, 27 April 1850, 264–65.