Homeward Bound XLIV
"Dearest friend, what may it profitTo repeat the old refrain?Wilt thou, brooding still above it,Sitting on love's egg remain!
Ah, it needs incessant watching;From the shell the chicks have risen.Clucking, they reward thy hatching,And this book shall be their prison."
Only bear with me in patience,If the notes of former wrongsMany a time distinctly echoIn the latest of my songs.
Wait! the slow reverberationOf my grief will soon depart,And a spring of new song blossomIn my healed, reviving heart.
Words in this poem
- needs adv.
- Of necessity; necessarily; indispensably; -- often with must, and equivalent to of need. [Orig. gen. of need, used as an adverb. Cf. - wards.]
- clucking n.
- The noise or call of a brooding hen.
- 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,]
- 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,]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Homeward Bound XLIV 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 XLIV, in Poems and Ballads (1881), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #31726, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/heine-poems-ballads/homeward-bound-xliv.html, id L15370.
Form and metre
Homeward Bound XLIV 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%). 97% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.8 syllables. 9 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 31% 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 ABAB profitA · refrainB · itA · remainB
- 2 -A-A watching · risenA · hatching · prisonA
- 3 -A-A patience · wrongsA · echo · songsA
- 4 -A-A reverberation · departA · blossom · heartA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| "Dearest friend, what may it profit | 8 | /˘····/˘ |
| To repeat the old refrain? | 7 | ·˘/··˘/ |
| Wilt thou, brooding still above it, | 8 | ··/˘···· |
| Sitting on love's egg remain! | 7 | /˘···˘/ |
| Ah, it needs incessant watching; | 8 | ···˘/˘/˘ |
| From the shell the chicks have risen. | 8 | ······/˘ |
| Clucking, they reward thy hatching, | 8 | /˘·˘/·/˘ |
| And this book shall be their prison." | 8 | ······/˘ |
| Only bear with me in patience, | 8 | /˘····/˘ |
| If the notes of former wrongs | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Many a time distinctly echo | 9 | /˘··˘/˘/˘ |
| In the latest of my songs. | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Wait! the slow reverberation | 8 | ···˘·˘/˘ |
| Of my grief will soon depart, | 7 | ·····˘/ |
| And a spring of new song blossom | 8 | ······/˘ |
| In my healed, reviving heart. | 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.