Epilogue
Like the stalks of wheat in the fields,So flourish and wave in the mind of manHis thoughts.But the delicate fancies of loveAre like gay little intermingled blossomsOf red and blue flowers.
Red and blue flowers!The surly reaper rejects you as useless.The wooden flail scornfully thrashes you,Even the luckless traveler,Whom your aspect delights and refreshes,Shakes his head,And calls you beautiful weeds.
But the rustic maiden,The wearer of garlands,Honors you, and plucks you,And adorns with you her fair locks.And thus decorated she hastens to the dancing-greenWhere the flutes and fiddles sweetly resound;Or to the quiet bushesWhere the voice of her beloved soundeth sweeter stillThan fiddles or flutes.
Words in this poem
- surly a.
- Arrogant; haughty. Cotgrave. [Probably from sir, and originally meaning, sirlike, i.e., proud. See Sir, and Like, a.]
- luckless a.
- Being without luck; unpropitious; unfortunate; unlucky; meeting with ill success or bad fortune; as, a luckless gamester; a luckless maid.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Epilogue is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems and Ballads, Project Gutenberg ebook #31726, the Emma Lazarus 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: Heinrich Heine, Epilogue, in Poems and Ballads (1881), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #31726, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/heine-poems-ballads/epilogue.html, id L15469.
Form and metre
Epilogue is 22 lines in 3 verse paragraphs. It is unrhymed, as far as the pronouncing dictionary can tell. 88% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.9 syllables. 9 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 27% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
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.
- 3 A---A---- maidenA · garlands · you · locks · greenA · resound · bushes · still · flutes
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. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Like the stalks of wheat in the fields, | 8 | ········ |
| So flourish and wave in the mind of man | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| His thoughts. | 2 | ·· |
| But the delicate fancies of love | 8 | ··/˘/˘·· |
| Are like gay little intermingled blossoms | 11 | ···/˘·˘/˘/˘ |
| Of red and blue flowers. | 6 | ····/˘ |
| Red and blue flowers! | 5 | ···/˘ |
| The surly reaper rejects you as useless. | 11 | ·/˘/˘/˘··/˘ |
| The wooden flail scornfully thrashes you, | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| Even the luckless traveler, | 8 | /˘·/˘/˘˘ |
| Whom your aspect delights and refreshes, | 10 | ··/·˘/·˘/˘ |
| Shakes his head, | 3 | ··· |
| And calls you beautiful weeds. | 7 | ···/˘˘· |
| But the rustic maiden, | 6 | ··/˘/˘ |
| The wearer of garlands, | 6 | ·/˘·/˘ |
| Honors you, and plucks you, | 6 | /˘···· |
| And adorns with you her fair locks. | 8 | ·˘/····· |
| And thus decorated she hastens to the dancing-green | 14 | ··/˘·˘·/˘··/˘· |
| Where the flutes and fiddles sweetly resound; | 10 | ····/˘/˘·/ |
| Or to the quiet bushes | 7 | ···/˘/˘ |
| Where the voice of her beloved soundeth sweeter still | 12 | ·····˘//˘/˘· |
| Than fiddles or flutes. | 5 | ·/˘·· |
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.