Homeward Bound LVII
I fain by thee would tarry,To rest there and to woo;But thou away must hurry,Thou hadst too much to do.
I told thee that my spiritWas wholly bound to thee,And thou didst laugh to hear it,And curtsy low to me.
Yea, thou did'st much misuse me,In all my love's distress,And even didst refuse meAt last the parting kiss.
I will not for thy gloryGo drown, when all is o'er;My dear, this same old storyBefell me once before.
Words in this poem
- fain v. t.
- To be glad ; to wish or desire.
- didst
- , the 2d pers. sing. imp. of Do.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Homeward Bound LVII 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 LVII, in Poems and Ballads (1881), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #31726, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/heine-poems-ballads/homeward-bound-lvii.html, id L15382.
Form and metre
Homeward Bound LVII is 16 lines in 4 stanzas of 4 lines each. The metre is iambic trimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 94%). 100% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 6.5 syllables. 5 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 25% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic trimeter.
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 tarry · wooA · hurry · doA
- 2 ABAB spiritA · theeB · itA · meB
- 3 A-A- meA · distress · meA · kiss
- 4 A-A- gloryA · o'er · storyA · before
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 trimeter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| I fain by thee would tarry, | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| To rest there and to woo; | 6 | ······ |
| But thou away must hurry, | 7 | ··˘/·/˘ |
| Thou hadst too much to do. | 6 | ······ |
| I told thee that my spirit | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| Was wholly bound to thee, | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| And thou didst laugh to hear it, | 7 | ······· |
| And curtsy low to me. | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| Yea, thou did'st much misuse me, | 7 | ····˘/· |
| In all my love's distress, | 6 | ····˘/ |
| And even didst refuse me | 7 | ·/˘·˘/· |
| At last the parting kiss. | 6 | ···/˘· |
| I will not for thy glory | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| Go drown, when all is o'er; | 6 | ······ |
| My dear, this same old story | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| Befell me once before. | 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.