---
title: Improvement Era
description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930.
authors:
  - Geldard, Hetty
collections:
  - periodicals
tags:
  - magazine
  - improvement-era
periodical: Improvement Era
volume: 20
number: 3
published: 1917-01
publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations
publisher_place: Salt Lake City
language: en
type: magazine
reference: 'Hetty Geldard, "My Homeland in the West: A Poem," *Improvement Era* 20, no. 3 (January 1917): 236.'
source:
  url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera2003unse
  transcription: Transcribed from the Internet Archive scan of each issue (the item for each issue is named in the issue's own source); unnumbered advertising leaves are omitted, printed page numbers are kept as page markers.
  identifier: improvementera2003unse
start_page: 236
end_page: 236
rights:
  status: public-domain
  basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1917-01)
  source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera2003unse
  publication_year: 1917
  note: The Internet Archive item metadata carries a blanket "© Copyright by Intellectual Reserve, Inc." notice. The library owner judged it inapplicable because this issue was published in 1917, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright.
---

# My Homeland in the West: A Poem

<!-- page:236 -->

;                                                     ;;
                                                                      !

23d                          IMPROVEMENT ERA

have not been found      ;   but as they are not so apparently Hebraic,
they are passed.
                              (to be continued.)

                    My Homeland in the West
                              By Hettie Geldard

There's a crying in the meadow, there's a sobbing on the breeze,
There's a yearning in the low wind as it passes through the trees
And oh, my heart is calling for the land I love the best,
And fast my tears are falling for my home-land in the West!

Oh, English fields are fair to see, and English hearts are kind,
But ne'er in English scenes and homes my heart's content I find
For only in the mountain vales my weary soul finds rest,
The sunny, Wasatch valleys, lying there far in the West!

The snowy peaks stand sentinel o'er fields of waving corn,
The roses blush to greet the sun, as each fair day is born.
This sun, that from the English sky so gladly sinks to rest,
Will shine with added glory soon, o'er my home-land in the West.

Methinks in all the world beside, no flowers bloom so fair,
IS or pine-clad slopes rain perfume on the soft, sun-bathed air;
The mountain streams drop clear and cool from many a lofty
       crest,
And happy songs are swelling from my home-land in the West.
There's many a heart is praising God for mercies rich and rare;
There's many a grateful song rings out from fields and orchards
      there
For more than all the world beside, they know that they are blest,
And praise their Maker for it, in my home-land in the West.
And there the Temple rears its head, a stately House of God,
And blesses with its grace the land the Pioneers have trod.
Its benediction     sheds o'er all, a peace divinely blest,
And gives still holier beauty to my home-land in the West.

But wearily amid the throng my alien footsteps trend,
And wearily each heavy day slips slowly to its end.
Sweet home of all my heart holds dear, of freedom, hope, and
       rest,
God grant I tread thy valleys soon, dear home-land in the West
Bradford, England