Homeward Bound LXV
He who for the first time loves,E'en rejected, is a god.He who loves a second time,Unrequited, is a fool.
Such a fool am I, in lovingOnce again with no return.Sun and moon and stars are laughing;I am laughing too--and dying.
About this text
Homeward Bound LXV 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 LXV, in Poems and Ballads (1881), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #31726, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/heine-poems-ballads/homeward-bound-lxv.html, id L15390.
Form and metre
Homeward Bound LXV is 8 lines in 2 verse paragraphs. It is unrhymed, as far as the pronouncing dictionary can tell. The metre is trochaic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 92%). 100% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.4 syllables. 3 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 trochaic 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.
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 trochaic tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| He who for the first time loves, | 7 | ······· |
| E'en rejected, is a god. | 7 | ·˘/˘··· |
| He who loves a second time, | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Unrequited, is a fool. | 7 | ·˘/˘··· |
| Such a fool am I, in loving | 8 | ······/˘ |
| Once again with no return. | 7 | ·˘/··˘/ |
| Sun and moon and stars are laughing; | 8 | ······/˘ |
| I am laughing too--and dying. | 8 | ··/˘··/˘ |
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.