Homeward Bound LXXXII
On the walls of SalamancaGently sigh the breezes yonder.Often with my gracious Donna,There on summer eves I wander.
Round my beauty's slender girdle,Tenderly mine arm enwreathing,I can feel with blessed fingerHer proud bosom's haughty breathing.
But I hear an anxious whisperThrough the linden-branches coming,And below, the somber mill-streamMurmurs dreams of evil omen.
Ah, Senora, I foresee it!I shall be expelled forever,On the walls of Salamanca,We again shall wander never!
Words in this poem
- yonder adv.
- At a distance, but within view. [OE. yonder, ýonder; cf. OD. ginder, Goth. jaindr there. Yond, adv.]
- donna n.
- A lady; madam; mistress; -- the title given a lady in Italy. [It. donna, L. domina. See Don, Dame.]
- tenderly adv.
- In a tender manner; with tenderness; mildly; gently; softly; in a manner not to injure or give pain; with pity or affection; kindly.
- haughty a.
- High; lofty; bold. [OE. hautein, F. hautain, fr. haut high, OF. also halt, fr. L. altus. See Altitude.]
- foresee v. i.
- To have or exercise foresight.
- 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,]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Homeward Bound LXXXII 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 LXXXII, in Poems and Ballads (1881), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #31726, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/heine-poems-ballads/homeward-bound-lxxxii.html, id L15407.
Form and metre
Homeward Bound LXXXII is 16 lines in 4 stanzas of 4 lines each. The metre is trochaic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 94%). 98% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.0 syllables. 13 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 salamanca · yonderA · donna · wanderA
- 2 -A-A girdle · enwreathingA · finger · breathingA
- 4 -A-A it · foreverA · salamanca · neverA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| On the walls of Salamanca | 8 | ·····˘/˘ |
| Gently sigh the breezes yonder. | 8 | /˘··/˘/˘ |
| Often with my gracious Donna, | 8 | /˘··/˘/˘ |
| There on summer eves I wander. | 8 | ··/˘··/˘ |
| Round my beauty's slender girdle, | 8 | ··/˘/˘/˘ |
| Tenderly mine arm enwreathing, | 8 | /˘˘····· |
| I can feel with blessed finger | 8 | ·····˘/˘ |
| Her proud bosom's haughty breathing. | 8 | ··/˘/˘/˘ |
| But I hear an anxious whisper | 8 | ····/˘/˘ |
| Through the linden-branches coming, | 8 | ··/˘/˘/˘ |
| And below, the somber mill-stream | 8 | ····/˘·· |
| Murmurs dreams of evil omen. | 8 | /˘··/˘/˘ |
| Ah, Senora, I foresee it! | 8 | ··/˘·˘/· |
| I shall be expelled forever, | 8 | ···˘/˘/˘ |
| On the walls of Salamanca, | 8 | ·····˘/˘ |
| We again shall wander never! | 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.