Good-Bye
Good-bye, proud world! I'm going home:Thou art not my friend, and I'm not thine.Long through thy weary crowds I roam;A river-ark on the ocean brine,Long I've been tossed like the driven foam:But now, proud world! I'm going home.
Good-bye to Flattery's fawning face;To Grandeur with his wise grimace;To upstart Wealth's averted eye;To supple Office, low and high;To crowded halls, to court and street;To frozen hearts and hasting feet;To those who go, and those who come;Good-bye, proud world! I'm going home.
I am going to my own hearth-stone,Bosomed in yon green hills alone,--secret nook in a pleasant land,Whose groves the frolic fairies planned;Where arches green, the livelong day,Echo the blackbird's roundelay,And vulgar feet have never trodA spot that is sacred to thought and God.
O, when I am safe in my sylvan home,I tread on the pride of Greece and Rome;And when I am stretched beneath the pines,Where the evening star so holy shines,I laugh at the lore and the pride of man,At the sophist schools and the learned clan;For what are they all, in their high conceit,When man in the bush with God may meet?
Words in this poem
- averted a.
- Turned away, esp. as an expression of feeling; also, offended; unpropitious.
- bosomed a.
- Having, or resembling, bosom; kept in the bosom; hidden.
- nook n.
- A narrow place formed by an angle in bodies or between bodies; a corner; a recess; a secluded retreat. [OE. nok; cf. Gael. & Ir. niuc.]
- livelong a.
- Whole; entire; long in passing; -- used of time, as day or night, in adverbial phrases, and usually with a sense of tediousness. [For lifelong. Cf. Lifelong.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Good-Bye is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems Household Edition, Project Gutenberg ebook #12843; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Ralph Waldo Emerson, Good-Bye, in Poems (1847), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #12843, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/emerson-poems/good-bye.html, id L07379.
Form and metre
Good-Bye is 30 lines in 4 stanzas. The rhyme scheme is AABBCCDD, complete in 3 of its 4 stanzas. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 85%). 94% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.5 syllables. 2 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending.
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 ABABAA homeA · thineB · roamA · brineB · foamA · homeA
- 2 AABBCCDD faceA · grimaceA · eyeB · highB · streetC · feetC · comeD · homeD
- 3 AABBCCDD stoneA · aloneA · landB · plannedB · dayC · roundelayC · trodD · godD
- 4 AABBCCDD homeA · romeA · pinesB · shinesB · manC · clanC · conceitD · meetD
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Good-bye, proud world! I'm going home: | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Thou art not my friend, and I'm not thine. | 9 | ········· |
| Long through thy weary crowds I roam; | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| A river-ark on the ocean brine, | 8 | ·/˘···/· |
| Long I've been tossed like the driven foam: | 8 | ······/· |
| But now, proud world! I'm going home. | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Good-bye to Flattery's fawning face; | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| To Grandeur with his wise grimace; | 8 | ·˘/···/˘ |
| To upstart Wealth's averted eye; | 8 | ·/··˘/˘· |
| To supple Office, low and high; | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| To crowded halls, to court and street; | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| To frozen hearts and hasting feet; | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| To those who go, and those who come; | 8 | ········ |
| Good-bye, proud world! I'm going home. | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| I am going to my own hearth-stone, | 8 | ··/····· |
| Bosomed in yon green hills alone,-- | 8 | /˘····˘/ |
| secret nook in a pleasant land, | 8 | /˘···/˘· |
| Whose groves the frolic fairies planned; | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| Where arches green, the livelong day, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Echo the blackbird's roundelay, | 8 | /˘·/˘/˘˘ |
| And vulgar feet have never trod | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| A spot that is sacred to thought and God. | 10 | ····/˘···· |
| O, when I am safe in my sylvan home, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| I tread on the pride of Greece and Rome; | 9 | ········· |
| And when I am stretched beneath the pines, | 9 | ········· |
| Where the evening star so holy shines, | 9 | ··/˘··/˘· |
| I laugh at the lore and the pride of man, | 10 | ·········· |
| At the sophist schools and the learned clan; | 9 | ··/˘····· |
| For what are they all, in their high conceit, | 10 | ········˘/ |
| When man in the bush with God may meet? | 9 | ········· |
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.