Homeward Bound III
My heart, my heart is heavy,Though merrily glows the May.Out on the ancient bastion,Under the lindens, I stay.
Below me the calm blue watersOf the quiet town-moat shine;A boy in his boat rows past me,He whistles and drops his line.
And yonder the cheerful colors,And tiny figures, one sees,Of people, and villas, and gardens,And cattle, and meadows, and trees.
Young women are bleaching linen;They leap in the grass anear.The mill-wheel rains showers of diamonds,Its far away buzz I hear.
Above on the gray old towerStands the sentry house of the town,And a scarlet-coated fellowGoes pacing up and down.
He toys with his shining musketThat gleams in the sunset red,Presenting and shouldering arms now--I wish he would shoot me dead.
Words in this poem
- yonder adv.
- At a distance, but within view. [OE. yonder, ýonder; cf. OD. ginder, Goth. jaindr there. Yond, adv.]
- anear v. t.
- To near; to approach.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Homeward Bound III 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, Homeward Bound III, in Poems and Ballads (1881), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #31726, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/heine-poems-ballads/homeward-bound-iii.html, id L15330.
Form and metre
Homeward Bound III is 24 lines in 6 stanzas of 4 lines each. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 79%). 89% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.5 syllables. 10 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 17% 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 -A-A heavy · mayA · bastion · stayA
- 2 -A-A waters · shineA · me · lineA
- 3 AA-A colorsA · seesA · gardens · treesA
- 4 -A-A linen · anearA · diamonds · hearA
- 5 -A-A tower · townA · fellow · downA
- 6 -A-A musket · redA · now · deadA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| My heart, my heart is heavy, | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| Though merrily glows the May. | 7 | ·/˘˘··· |
| Out on the ancient bastion, | 7 | ···/˘/˘ |
| Under the lindens, I stay. | 7 | ···/˘·· |
| Below me the calm blue waters | 8 | ······/˘ |
| Of the quiet town-moat shine; | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| A boy in his boat rows past me, | 8 | ········ |
| He whistles and drops his line. | 7 | ·/˘···· |
| And yonder the cheerful colors, | 8 | ·/˘·/˘/˘ |
| And tiny figures, one sees, | 7 | ·/˘/˘·· |
| Of people, and villas, and gardens, | 9 | ·/˘·/˘·/˘ |
| And cattle, and meadows, and trees. | 8 | ·/˘·/··· |
| Young women are bleaching linen; | 8 | ·/˘·/˘/˘ |
| They leap in the grass anear. | 7 | ·····˘/ |
| The mill-wheel rains showers of diamonds, | 9 | ····/˘·/˘ |
| Its far away buzz I hear. | 7 | ··˘/··· |
| Above on the gray old tower | 8 | ······/˘ |
| Stands the sentry house of the town, | 8 | ··/˘···· |
| And a scarlet-coated fellow | 8 | ··/˘/˘/˘ |
| Goes pacing up and down. | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| He toys with his shining musket | 8 | ····/˘/˘ |
| That gleams in the sunset red, | 7 | ····/·· |
| Presenting and shouldering arms now-- | 8 | ˘/˘·/˘·· |
| I wish he would shoot me dead. | 7 | ······· |
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.