Homeward Bound IV
In tears through the woods I wander.The thrush is perched on the bough:She springs and sings up yonder--"Oh, why so sad art thou?"
The swallows, thy sisters, are ableMy dear, to answer thee.They built clever nests in the gable,Where sweetheart's windows be.
Words in this poem
- yonder adv.
- At a distance, but within view. [OE. yonder, ýonder; cf. OD. ginder, Goth. jaindr there. Yond, adv.]
- gable n.
- A cable. Chapman.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Homeward Bound IV 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 IV, in Poems and Ballads (1881), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #31726, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/heine-poems-ballads/homeward-bound-iv.html, id L15331.
Form and metre
Homeward Bound IV is 8 lines in 2 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABAB. The metre is common measure, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 79%). 90% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.4 syllables. 4 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 12% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in common measure.
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 ABAB wanderA · boughB · yonderA · thouB
- 2 ABAB ableA · theeB · gableA · beB
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 common measure. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| In tears through the woods I wander. | 8 | ······/˘ |
| The thrush is perched on the bough: | 7 | ······· |
| She springs and sings up yonder-- | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| "Oh, why so sad art thou?" | 6 | ······ |
| The swallows, thy sisters, are able | 9 | ·/˘·/˘·/˘ |
| My dear, to answer thee. | 6 | ···/˘· |
| They built clever nests in the gable, | 9 | ··/˘···/˘ |
| Where sweetheart's windows be. | 6 | ·/·/˘· |
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.