Homeward Bound LXXXIV
We scarcely had met ere thy voice and thine eyeAssured me, my darling, that thou wast mine own;And had not thy mother stood cruelly nigh,I think I should really have kissed thee anon.
To-morrow again I depart from the town,And hasten forth on my weary track,From the window my yellow-haired lass peeps down,And the friendliest greetings I waft her back.
Words in this poem
- wast
- The second person singular of the verb be, in the indicative mood, imperfect tense; -- now used only in solemn or poetical style.
- anon adv.
- Straightway; at once. [OE. anoon, anon, anan, lit., in one (moment), fr. AS. on in + an one. See On and One.]
- depart v. i.
- To part; to divide; to separate. [OE. departen to divide, part, depart, F. départir to divide, distribute, se départir to separate one's self, depart; pref. dé- (L. de) + partir to part, depart,]
- lass n.
- A youth woman; a girl; a sweetheart. [OE. lasse; prob. of Celtic origin; cf. W. llodes girl, fem. of llawd lad. (Lad a youth.]
- waft v. t.
- To give notice to by waving something; to wave the hand to; to beckon. [Prob. originally imp. & p. p. of wave, v. t. See Wave to waver.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Homeward Bound LXXXIV 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 LXXXIV, in Poems and Ballads (1881), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #31726, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/heine-poems-ballads/homeward-bound-lxxxiv.html, id L15409.
Form and metre
Homeward Bound LXXXIV is 8 lines in 2 stanzas of 4 lines each. The metre is anapaestic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 85%). 71% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.5 syllables. 12% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in anapaestic 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- eyeA · own · nighA · anon
- 2 ABAB townA · trackB · downA · backB
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 anapaestic tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| We scarcely had met ere thy voice and thine eye | 11 | ·/˘········ |
| Assured me, my darling, that thou wast mine own; | 11 | ˘/··/˘····· |
| And had not thy mother stood cruelly nigh, | 10 | ····/˘·/˘· |
| I think I should really have kissed thee anon. | 11 | ····/˘···˘/ |
| To-morrow again I depart from the town, | 11 | ·/˘˘/·˘/··· |
| And hasten forth on my weary track, | 9 | ·/˘···/˘· |
| From the window my yellow-haired lass peeps down, | 11 | ··/˘·/˘···· |
| And the friendliest greetings I waft her back. | 10 | ··/˘/˘···· |
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.