Do They Miss Me at Home?

"Do They Miss Me at Home?" is a song composed by S. M. Grannis with lyrics by Caroline Atherton Mason. The song was published in 1852 and enjoyed great popularity upon its publication. It was later popular among soldiers during the American Civil War.

"Do They Miss Me at Home?"
Song
LanguageEnglish
Published1852
Composer(s)S. M. Grannis
Lyricist(s)Caroline Atherton Mason

Background and composition

The lyrics to the song were written as a poem by Mason and published in the Salem Register in 1844, where young Mason published a number of poems under the name "Caro".[1][2] Her first volume of verse appeared in January 1852, Utterance; Or, Private Voices to the Public Heart, and "Do They Miss Me at Home?" appeared as the first poem.[3][4][5] Utterance received a fairly warm reception from literary reviewers.[6][7][8][9][10][11]

The poem was set to music by Grannis, and the song published by Oliver Ditson's music publishing house by mid-1852. The original sheet music was credited to Grannis with no mention of the author of the lyrics. The sheet music touted that it was being "sung by the Ampheons", a singing group which included Grannis, "at their principal concerts throughout the country".[12]

Reception

The song was "universally popular in its time",[13] and its popularity carried into the Civil War, where Mason's lyrics, written as a homesick girl away from home at school, readily translated to the plight of the soldiers on both sides, and was among the songs soldiers would sing.[14][15]

The song generated a number of responses, as well as a parody titled "Do They Miss Me in the Trenches?"[15] Poet James Whitcomb Riley wrote of its lasting popularity in an 1885 poem titled "A Old-Played Out Song".[16]

References
  1. Emerson, William Andrew (1900). Fireside Legends (2nd ed.). p. 79.
  2. Barrett, Faith; Miller, Cristanne, eds. (2005). "Words for the Hour": A New Anthology of American Civil War Poetry. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press. p. 387. ISBN 1-55849-509-6.
  3. Briggs, Caroline A. (1852). Utterance; Or, Private Voices to the Public Heart: A Collection of Home-poems. Boston: Phillips, Sampson, and Company. p. 17.
  4. "Briggs family. Papers, 1820-1915: A Finding Aid". Harvard University Library. Archived from the original on July 3, 2014. Retrieved May 11, 2012.
  5. Mason, Caroline A. (1892). The Lost Ring and Other Poems. "Introduction" by Charles G. Ames. Boston; New York: Houghton, Mifflin and Company.
  6. "The Editor's Table". The Ladies' Repository. Vol. XX. January 1852. p. 278.
  7. "Notices of Recent Publications". Christian Examiner. Vol. LII, no. CLXIX. January 1852. p. 158.
  8. "Notes on Books". Norton's Literary Advertiser. Vol. I, no. VIII. December 15, 1851. pp. 90–91.
  9. "New Books". Littell's Living Age. Vol. XXXII, no. 398. January 3, 1852. p. 48.
  10. "Review of New Books". Graham's Magazine. Vol. XL, no. 4. April 1852. pp. 442–443.
  11. "Critical Notices". The American Review. Vol. XV, no. LXXXVII. March 1852. p. 283.
  12. "Musical Review". Dwight's Journal of Music. Vol. I, no. 12. June 26, 1852. p. 93.
  13. "Holiday Books". The Literary World. Vol. XXII, no. 24. November 21, 1891. p. 431.
  14. Hanaford, Phebe A. (1883). Daughters of America; Or, Women of the Century. Boston: B. B. Russell. p. 235.
  15. Silber, Irwin, ed. (1995). Songs of the Civil War. New York: Dover Publications, Inc. p. 119. ISBN 0-486-28438-7. Retrieved October 16, 2022.
  16. Riley, James Whitcomb (1913). The Complete Works of James Whitcomb Riley. Vol. III. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill Company Publishers. p. 542.

Further reading


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