The Return
Though I get home how late, how late!So I get home, 't will compensate.Better will be the ecstasyThat they have done expecting me,When, night descending, dumb and dark,They hear my unexpected knock.Transporting must the moment be,Brewed from decades of agony!
To think just how the fire will burn,Just how long-cheated eyes will turnTo wonder what myself will say,And what itself will say to me,Beguiles the centuries of way!
About this text
The Return is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems by Emily Dickinson, Three Series, Complete, Project Gutenberg ebook #12242; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Emily Dickinson, The Return, in Poems (1890–1896), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #12242, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/dickinson-poems/the-return.html, id L03648.
Form and metre
The Return is 13 lines in 2 stanzas. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 88%). 96% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.8 syllables. 2 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 15% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic tetrameter.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 1 AA-B--B- lateA · compensateA · ecstasy · meB · dark · knock · beB · agony
- 2 AAB-B burnA · turnA · sayB · me · wayB
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against iambic tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Though I get home how late, how late! | 8 | ········ |
| So I get home, 't will compensate. | 9 | ······/˘· |
| Better will be the ecstasy | 8 | /˘···/˘˘ |
| That they have done expecting me, | 8 | ····˘/˘· |
| When, night descending, dumb and dark, | 8 | ··˘/˘··· |
| They hear my unexpected knock. | 8 | ····˘/˘· |
| Transporting must the moment be, | 8 | ˘/˘··/˘· |
| Brewed from decades of agony! | 8 | ··˘/·/˘˘ |
| To think just how the fire will burn, | 8 | ·····/·· |
| Just how long-cheated eyes will turn | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| To wonder what myself will say, | 8 | ·/˘··/·· |
| And what itself will say to me, | 8 | ··˘/···· |
| Beguiles the centuries of way! | 8 | ˘/·/˘˘·· |
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.