Homeward Bound LXXVIII
Dost thou hate me then so fiercely,Hast thou really changed so blindly?To the world I shall proclaim it,Thou could'st treat me so unkindly.
Say, ungrateful lips, how can youBreathe an evil word of scorning,Of the very man who kissed youSo sincerely, yestermorning?
Words in this poem
- hast
- , 2d pers. sing. pres. of. Fave, contr. of havest.
- blindly adv.
- Without sight, discernment, or understanding; without thought, investigation, knowledge, or purpose of one's own.
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
- unkindly a.
- Not kindly; unkind; ungracious.
- ungrateful a.
- Not grateful; not thankful for favors; making no returns, or making ill return for kindness, attention, etc.; ingrateful. South.
- sincerely adv.
- In a sincere manner. Specifically: (a) Purely; without alloy.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Homeward Bound LXXVIII 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 LXXVIII, in Poems and Ballads (1881), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #31726, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/heine-poems-ballads/homeward-bound-lxxviii.html, id L15403.
Form and metre
Homeward Bound LXXVIII is 8 lines in 2 stanzas of 4 lines each. The metre is trochaic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 93%). 100% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.0 syllables. 4 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 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.
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 fiercely · blindlyA · it · unkindlyA
- 2 ABAB youA · scorningB · youA · yestermorningB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Dost thou hate me then so fiercely, | 8 | ······/˘ |
| Hast thou really changed so blindly? | 8 | ··/˘··/˘ |
| To the world I shall proclaim it, | 8 | ·····˘/· |
| Thou could'st treat me so unkindly. | 8 | ·····˘/˘ |
| Say, ungrateful lips, how can you | 8 | ·˘/˘···· |
| Breathe an evil word of scorning, | 8 | ··/˘··/˘ |
| Of the very man who kissed you | 8 | ··/˘···· |
| So sincerely, yestermorning? | 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.