Purification
Remain in thy deep sea-home,Thou insane dream,Which so many a nightHast tortured my heart with a counterfeit happiness,And which now as a vision of the seaDost threaten me even in the broad daylight.Remain there below to all eternity!And I cast moreover down unto theeAll my sorrows and sins,And the cap and bells of follyThat have jingled so long upon my head.And the cold, sleek serpent's skinOf dissimulation,Which so long has enwound my soul--My sick soul,My God-denying, angel-denyingWretched soul.Hilli-ho! Hilli-ho! Here comes the breeze.Up with the sails! They flutter and belly to the wind.Over the treacherous smooth plainHastens the shipAnd the emancipated soul rejoices.
Words in this poem
- hast
- , 2d pers. sing. pres. of. Fave, contr. of havest.
- daylight n.
- The light of day as opposed to the darkness of night; the light of the sun, as opposed to that of the moon or to artificial light.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Purification 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, Purification, in Poems and Ballads (1881), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #31726, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/heine-poems-ballads/purification.html, id L15457.
Form and metre
Purification is 22 lines in a single stanza. 89% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.9 syllables. 5 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 36% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
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-BA-B-----CC-CD---D home · dream · nightA · happiness · seaB · daylightA · eternity · theeB · sins · folly · head · skin · dissimulation · soulC · soulC · denying · soulC · breezeD · wind · plain · ship · rejoicesD
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. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Remain in thy deep sea-home, | 7 | ˘/····· |
| Thou insane dream, | 4 | ·˘/· |
| Which so many a night | 6 | ··/˘·· |
| Hast tortured my heart with a counterfeit happiness, | 12 | ·/˘····/˘·/˘ |
| And which now as a vision of the sea | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Dost threaten me even in the broad daylight. | 10 | ·/˘·/···/· |
| Remain there below to all eternity! | 10 | ˘/·····˘/˘ |
| And I cast moreover down unto thee | 10 | ···˘/˘···· |
| All my sorrows and sins, | 6 | ··/˘·· |
| And the cap and bells of folly | 8 | ······/˘ |
| That have jingled so long upon my head. | 10 | ··/˘······ |
| And the cold, sleek serpent's skin | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Of dissimulation, | 3 | ··· |
| Which so long has enwound my soul-- | 8 | ········ |
| My sick soul, | 3 | ··· |
| My God-denying, angel-denying | 10 | ··˘/˘/˘˘/˘ |
| Wretched soul. | 3 | /˘· |
| Hilli-ho! Hilli-ho! Here comes the breeze. | 10 | ·········· |
| Up with the sails! They flutter and belly to the wind. | 13 | ·····/˘·/˘··· |
| Over the treacherous smooth plain | 8 | ···/˘˘·· |
| Hastens the ship | 4 | /˘·· |
| And the emancipated soul rejoices. | 11 | ··˘/˘·˘·˘/˘ |
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.