Homeward Bound XXXIII
Ah, those pure white lily fingers,Once again could I but kiss them,Press them close against my heart,Melt away in silent weeping!
Oh, those clearest eyes of violetHover day and night before me,And I ponder o'er the meaningOf those lovely blue enigmas.
Words in this poem
- hover n.
- A cover; a shelter; a protection. Carew. C. Kingsley. [Etymol. doubtful.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Homeward Bound XXXIII 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 XXXIII, in Poems and Ballads (1881), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #31726, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/heine-poems-ballads/homeward-bound-xxxiii.html, id L15360.
Form and metre
Homeward Bound XXXIII is 8 lines in 2 verse paragraphs. It is unrhymed, as far as the pronouncing dictionary can tell. The metre is trochaic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 96%). 98% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.0 syllables. 5 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 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.
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Ah, those pure white lily fingers, | 8 | ····/˘/˘ |
| Once again could I but kiss them, | 8 | ·˘/····· |
| Press them close against my heart, | 7 | ······· |
| Melt away in silent weeping! | 8 | ·˘/·/˘/˘ |
| Oh, those clearest eyes of violet | 9 | ··/˘··/˘˘ |
| Hover day and night before me, | 8 | /˘······ |
| And I ponder o'er the meaning | 8 | ··/˘··/˘ |
| Of those lovely blue enigmas. | 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.