In the Underworld I
"O to be a bachelor!"Pluto now forever sighs."In my marriage miseries,I perceive, without a wifeHell was not a hell before.
"O to be a bachelor!Since my Proserpine is mine,Daily for my grave I pine,When she raileth I can hearBarking Cerberus no more.
"My poor heart needs rest and ease,In the realm of shades I cry,--No lost soul is sad as I.Sisyphus I envy now,And the fair Danaides."
Words in this poem
- cerberus n.
- A monster, in the shape, of a three-headed dog, guarding the entrance into the infernal regions, Hence: Any vigilant custodian or guardian, esp. if surly.
- needs adv.
- Of necessity; necessarily; indispensably; -- often with must, and equivalent to of need. [Orig. gen. of need, used as an adverb. Cf. - wards.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
In the Underworld I 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, In the Underworld I, in Poems and Ballads (1881), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #31726, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/heine-poems-ballads/in-the-underworld-i.html, id L15319.
Form and metre
In the Underworld I is 15 lines in 3 stanzas of 5 lines each. The metre is trochaic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 90%). 92% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 6.9 syllables. 3 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 13% 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 -AA-- bachelor · sighsA · miseriesA · wife · before
- 2 -AA-- bachelor · mineA · pineA · hear · more
- 3 -AA-- ease · cryA · iA · now · danaides
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 |
|---|---|---|
| "O to be a bachelor!" | 7 | ····/˘˘ |
| Pluto now forever sighs. | 7 | /˘·˘/˘· |
| "In my marriage miseries, | 7 | ··/˘/˘˘ |
| I perceive, without a wife | 7 | ·˘/···· |
| Hell was not a hell before. | 7 | ······· |
| "O to be a bachelor! | 7 | ····/˘˘ |
| Since my Proserpine is mine, | 7 | ······· |
| Daily for my grave I pine, | 7 | /˘····· |
| When she raileth I can hear | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Barking Cerberus no more. | 7 | /˘/˘˘·· |
| "My poor heart needs rest and ease, | 7 | ······· |
| In the realm of shades I cry,-- | 7 | ······· |
| No lost soul is sad as I. | 7 | ······· |
| Sisyphus I envy now, | 7 | /˘˘·/˘· |
| And the fair Danaides." | 5 | ····· |
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.