Ruminations of Homesickness and Seminar Papers at Christmastime

SONG

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Stay, stay at home, my heart, and rest;

Home-keeping hearts are happiest,

For those that wander they know not where

Are full of trouble and full of care;

To stay at home is best.




Weary and homesick and distressed,

They wander east, they wander west,

And are baffled and beaten and blown about

By the winds of the wilderness of doubt;

To stay at home is best.



Then stay at home, my heart, and rest;

The bird is safest in its nest;

O'er all that flutter their wings and fly

A hawk is hovering in the sky;

To stay at home is best.


This poem is the thing that I would prefer to live by and never get anywhere near. It is my ideal, perhaps because it is so far from anything that I am.

It is the appetitive part of the soul that rules when we live without risk and in fear of death. This is the most reprehensible model of life in my way of thinking. And yet it is when the appetitive part of the soul rules that we are restless (Augustine!). Although, in fairness, perhaps what Longfellow presents as a dichotomy is actually not--perhaps there is a third alternative besides staying at home and wandering: traveling--a sort of pilgrim traveler--spending your whole life getting to one place, which of course involves some digressions along the way. This would be the difference between the Straussian "quest as life" model and the Christian model of seeking the good involving a quest, but not being satisfied with just the quest, just the unknowing.