Margaret’s Room
My peace is gone,My heart is sore:I never shall find it,Ah, nevermore!
Save I have him near.The grave is here;The world is gallAnd bitterness all.
My poor weak headIs racked and crazed;My thought is lost,My senses mazed.
My peace is gone,My heart is sore:I never shall find it,Ah, nevermore!
To see him, him only,At the pane I sit;To meet him, him only,The house I quit.
His lofty gait,His noble size,The smile of his mouth,The power of his eyes,
And the magic flowOf his talk, the blissIn the clasp of his hand,And, ah! his kiss!
My peace is gone,My heart is sore:I never shall find it,Ah, nevermore!
My bosom yearnsFor him alone;Ah, dared I clasp him,And hold, and own!
And kiss his mouth,To heart’s desire,And on his kissesAt last expire!
Words in this poem
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
- nevermore adv.
- Never again; at no time hereafter. Testament of Love. Tyndale.
- pane n.
- The narrow edge of a hammer head. See Peen. [F. panne.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Margaret’s Room is in the public domain. This text is taken from Faust, Part One, Project Gutenberg ebook #14591, the Bayard Taylor translation; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Margaret’s Room, in Faust, Part One (1870), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #14591, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/goethe-faust/margaret-s-room.html, id L14397.
Form and metre
Margaret’s Room is 40 lines in 10 stanzas of 4 lines each. The metre is iambic dimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 92%). 99% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 4.6 syllables. 4 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 dimeter.
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 -A-A gone · soreA · it · nevermoreA
- 2 AABB nearA · hereA · gallB · allB
- 3 -A-A head · crazedA · lost · mazedA
- 4 -A-A gone · soreA · it · nevermoreA
- 5 ABAB onlyA · sitB · onlyA · quitB
- 6 -A-A gait · sizeA · mouth · eyesA
- 7 -A-A flow · blissA · hand · kissA
- 8 -A-A gone · soreA · it · nevermoreA
- 9 -A-A yearns · aloneA · him · ownA
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 dimeter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| My peace is gone, | 4 | ···· |
| My heart is sore: | 4 | ···· |
| I never shall find it, | 5 | ·/··· |
| Ah, nevermore! | 4 | ·/˘· |
| Save I have him near. | 5 | ····· |
| The grave is here; | 4 | ···· |
| The world is gall | 4 | ···· |
| And bitterness all. | 4 | ·/˘· |
| My poor weak head | 4 | ···· |
| Is racked and crazed; | 4 | ···· |
| My thought is lost, | 4 | ···· |
| My senses mazed. | 4 | ·/˘· |
| My peace is gone, | 4 | ···· |
| My heart is sore: | 4 | ···· |
| I never shall find it, | 5 | ·/··· |
| Ah, nevermore! | 4 | ·/˘· |
| To see him, him only, | 6 | ····/˘ |
| At the pane I sit; | 5 | ····· |
| To meet him, him only, | 6 | ····/˘ |
| The house I quit. | 4 | ···· |
| His lofty gait, | 4 | ·/˘· |
| His noble size, | 4 | ·/˘· |
| The smile of his mouth, | 5 | ····· |
| The power of his eyes, | 5 | ·/··· |
| And the magic flow | 5 | ··/˘· |
| Of his talk, the bliss | 5 | ····· |
| In the clasp of his hand, | 6 | ······ |
| And, ah! his kiss! | 4 | ···· |
| My peace is gone, | 4 | ···· |
| My heart is sore: | 4 | ···· |
| I never shall find it, | 5 | ·/··· |
| Ah, nevermore! | 4 | ·/˘· |
| My bosom yearns | 4 | ·/˘· |
| For him alone; | 4 | ··˘/ |
| Ah, dared I clasp him, | 5 | ····· |
| And hold, and own! | 4 | ···· |
| And kiss his mouth, | 4 | ···· |
| To heart’s desire, | 5 | ··˘/˘ |
| And on his kisses | 5 | ···/˘ |
| At last expire! | 4 | ··˘/ |
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.