Homeward Bound XLIX
Thou seemest like a flower,So pure and fair and bright;A melancholy yearningSteals o'er me at thy sight.
I fain would lay in blessingMy hands upon thy hair,Imploring God to keep thee,So bright, and pure, and fair.
Words in this poem
- fain v. t.
- To be glad ; to wish or desire.
- imploring a.
- That implores; beseeching; entreating.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Homeward Bound XLIX 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 XLIX, in Poems and Ballads (1881), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #31726, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/heine-poems-ballads/homeward-bound-xlix.html, id L15374.
Form and metre
Homeward Bound XLIX is 8 lines in 2 stanzas of 4 lines each. The metre is common measure, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 98%). 100% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 6.5 syllables. 3 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 common measure.
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 flower · brightA · yearning · sightA
- 2 -A-A blessing · hairA · thee · fairA
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 common measure. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Thou seemest like a flower, | 7 | ·/˘··/˘ |
| So pure and fair and bright; | 6 | ······ |
| A melancholy yearning | 7 | ·/˘·˘/˘ |
| Steals o'er me at thy sight. | 6 | ······ |
| I fain would lay in blessing | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| My hands upon thy hair, | 6 | ······ |
| Imploring God to keep thee, | 7 | ˘/˘···· |
| So bright, and pure, and fair. | 6 | ······ |
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.