Student Question
Why might a small house be better than palaces and pleasures?
Quick answer:
A small house may be better than palaces and pleasures because it can be a true home, offering love, safety, and comfort, as reflected in John Howard Payne's poem "Home, Sweet Home." The poem emphasizes that the essence of a home lies in its ability to provide peace of mind, familial love, and solace, which grand palaces and pleasures cannot match. Ultimately, a home is where one feels safe, loved, and comforted.
A small house is better than "pleasures and palaces," if the small house is also a home. This is the message of John Howard Payne's "Home, Sweet Home." The size of the house is incidental. Whether the house is big or small, all that really matters is that it is also a home.
Throughout the poem, Payne eulogizes the home as a place where we can have "peace of mind" and as a place where one can find "a fond father's smile" and "a mother to soothe and beguile." A home is a place one can return to when one feels "overburdened with care," and a home is the place of "The heart's dearest solace." In other words, Payne implies that a home is a place where one can feel safe, loved, and comforted. No matter how wonderful the pleasures or how grand the palaces, no pleasure or palace can offer the love, safety, and comfort of a good home.
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