Felecia Hemans

The Homes of England

I read this poem through and immediately got the feeling that this was a poem dedicated to women. After reading her biography and knowing she was abandoned by her husband and forced to support her family with her writing, it is natural that her writings would be influenced by this. The beginning of the poem starts us out in the larger homes of England and goes down to the smaller or “poorer” members of the country. But what made me feel that this was a tribute to women was the last stanza where she wrote:

May hearts of native proof be rear’d

To guard each hallowed wall!

And green for ever be the groves,

And bright the flowery sod,

Where first the child’s glad spirit loves

Its country and its God!

Reading this passage is what made me think that she was celebrating the rearing and teaching of children, and in her age it as the woman who taught the children, so it was natural that this poem was a tribute to them.