Homeward Bound X
Up amidst the clouds, the moon,Like a giant orange, beams,O'er the gray sea shining down,With broad stripes and golden gleams.
And I pace the shore alone,Where the billows white are broken.Many a tender word I hear,Words within the water spoken.
Ah, the night is far too long,And my heart throbs fast for pleasure.Beautiful undines, come forth!Sing and dance your magic measure.
Take my body and my soul:On your lap my head shall rest.Sing to death, caress to death;Kiss the life from out my breast.
Words in this poem
- amidst prep.
- In the midst or middle of; surrounded or encompassed by; among. [OE. amidde, amiddes, on midden, AS. on middan, in the middle, fr. midde the middle. The s is an adverbial ending, originally marking the genitive; the t is a la]
- 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,]
- caress n.
- An act of endearment; any act or expression of affection; an embracing, or touching, with tenderness. [F. caresse, It. carezza, LL. caritia dearness, fr. L. carus dear. See Charity.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Homeward Bound X 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 X, in Poems and Ballads (1881), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #31726, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/heine-poems-ballads/homeward-bound-x.html, id L15337.
Form and metre
Homeward Bound X is 16 lines in 4 stanzas of 4 lines each. The metre is trochaic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 92%). 94% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.3 syllables. 4 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending.
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 moon · beamsA · down · gleamsA
- 2 AA-A aloneA · brokenA · hear · spokenA
- 3 -A-A long · pleasureA · forth · measureA
- 4 -A-A soul · restA · death · breastA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Up amidst the clouds, the moon, | 7 | ·˘/···· |
| Like a giant orange, beams, | 7 | ··/˘/˘· |
| O'er the gray sea shining down, | 7 | ····/˘· |
| With broad stripes and golden gleams. | 7 | ····/˘· |
| And I pace the shore alone, | 7 | ·····˘/ |
| Where the billows white are broken. | 8 | ··/˘··/˘ |
| Many a tender word I hear, | 8 | /˘·/˘··· |
| Words within the water spoken. | 8 | ····/˘/˘ |
| Ah, the night is far too long, | 7 | ······· |
| And my heart throbs fast for pleasure. | 8 | ······/˘ |
| Beautiful undines, come forth! | 7 | /˘˘/··· |
| Sing and dance your magic measure. | 8 | ····/˘/˘ |
| Take my body and my soul: | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| On your lap my head shall rest. | 7 | ······· |
| Sing to death, caress to death; | 7 | ···˘/·· |
| Kiss the life from out my breast. | 7 | ······· |
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.