"The Star of My Home" (1858)
Ballad
Poetry by Eliza Cook, 1818-1889
Music by John Rogers Thomas, 1830-1896
Author of
"Annie Law," Were Boys and Girls Together" &C &C

New York: Firth, Pond & Co., 543 Broadway
Pittsburgh: Henry Kleber & Bro.
St. Louis: H. Pilcher & Sons
Cincinnati: C. Y. Fonda
Plate No. 4378
Engraver: Quidor.
[Source: @NYPL]

1. I remember the days when my spirit would turn 
From the fairest of scenes and the sweetest of song, 
When the hearth of the stranger seem’d coldly to burn, 
And the moments of pleasure for me were too long; 
For one name and one form shone in glory and light, 
And lured back from all that might tempt one to roam; 
The festal was joyous but was not so bright 
As the smile of my mother, the Star of my Home, 
The smile of my mother, the Star of my Home!

2. I remember the days when the tear filled my eye,
And the heaving sob wildly disturbed my young breast;
But the hand of that loved one the lashes would dry,
And her soothing voice lull my chafed bosom to rest.
The sharpest of pain and saddest of woes,
The darkest and deepest of shadows might come;
Yes each wound had its balm, while my soul could repose
On the heart of a mother the Star of my Home!
On the heart of a mother the Star of my Home!

3. But now let me rove the wide world as I may,
There’s no form to arise as a magnet for me,
I can rest amid strangers, and laugh with the gay—
Content with the pathway where’er it may be.
Let sorrow or pain fling their gloomiest cloud,
There’s no haven to shelter, no beacon to save;
For the rays that e’er led me are quenched by the shroud,
And the Star of my Home has gone down in the grave.
And the Star of my Home has gone down in the grave.