Homeward Bound XXVII
The years are coming and going,Whole races are home to their rest;But never ceases the passionThat burns within my breast.
Only once more I would see thee,And make thee a low salaam,And with my dying breath, murmur:"I love you still, Madame!"
Words in this poem
- salaam v. i.
- To make or perform a salam.
- madame n.
- My lady; -- a French title formerly given to ladies of quality; now, in France, given to all married women. [F., fr. ma my (L. mea) + dame dame. See Dame, and cf. Madonna.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Homeward Bound XXVII 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 XXVII, in Poems and Ballads (1881), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #31726, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/heine-poems-ballads/homeward-bound-xxvii.html, id L15354.
Form and metre
Homeward Bound XXVII is 8 lines in 2 stanzas of 4 lines each. The metre is dactylic trimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 76%). 83% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.4 syllables. 4 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 12% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in dactylic trimeter.
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 going · restA · passion · breastA
- 2 -A-A thee · salaamA · murmur · madameA
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 dactylic trimeter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| The years are coming and going, | 8 | ···/˘·/˘ |
| Whole races are home to their rest; | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| But never ceases the passion | 8 | ·/˘/˘·/˘ |
| That burns within my breast. | 6 | ······ |
| Only once more I would see thee, | 8 | /˘······ |
| And make thee a low salaam, | 7 | ·····˘/ |
| And with my dying breath, murmur: | 8 | ···/˘·/˘ |
| "I love you still, Madame!" | 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.