Homeward Bound XXIX
What means this lonely tear-dropThat blurs my troubled sight,From olden times returningBack to mine eyes to-night?
Its many glimmering sistersAre vanished long ago,In the night and the wind they vanishedWith all my joy and my woe.
And like the mists of eveningDid those blue stars depart,That smiled all joys and sorrowsInto my trusting heart.
Alas! my love, too, meltedLike idle breath one day;Oh lingering, lonely tear-drop,Thou also fade away!
Words in this poem
- olden a.
- Old; ancient; as, the olden time.
- 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 XXIX 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 XXIX, in Poems and Ballads (1881), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #31726, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/heine-poems-ballads/homeward-bound-xxix.html, id L15356.
Form and metre
Homeward Bound XXIX is 16 lines in 4 stanzas of 4 lines each. The metre is common measure, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 90%). 88% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.0 syllables. 6 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 44% 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 drop · sightA · returning · nightA
- 2 -A-A sisters · agoA · vanished · woeA
- 3 -A-A evening · departA · sorrows · heartA
- 4 -A-A melted · dayA · drop · awayA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| What means this lonely tear-drop | 7 | ···/˘·· |
| That blurs my troubled sight, | 7 | ···/˘˘· |
| From olden times returning | 7 | ·/˘·˘/˘ |
| Back to mine eyes to-night? | 6 | ······ |
| Its many glimmering sisters | 8 | ·/˘/˘˘/˘ |
| Are vanished long ago, | 7 | ·/˘˘·˘/ |
| In the night and the wind they vanished | 9 | ·······/˘ |
| With all my joy and my woe. | 7 | ······· |
| And like the mists of evening | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| Did those blue stars depart, | 6 | ····˘/ |
| That smiled all joys and sorrows | 8 | ··˘···/˘ |
| Into my trusting heart. | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Alas! my love, too, melted | 7 | ˘/···/˘ |
| Like idle breath one day; | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| Oh lingering, lonely tear-drop, | 8 | ·/˘˘/˘·· |
| Thou also fade away! | 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.