Sonnets to My Mother, B. Heine, Nee Von Geldern II
In fond delusion once I left thy side;Unto the wide world's end I fain would fare,To see if I might find Love anywhere,And lovingly embrace Love as a bride.Love sought I in all paths, at every gate;Oft and again outstretching suppliant palms,I begged in vain of Love the slightest alms,But the world laughed and offered me cold hate.Forever I aspired towards Love, foreverTowards Love, and ne'ertheless I found Love never,--And sick at heart, homeward my steps did move.And lo! thou comest forth to welcome me;And that which in thy swimming eyes I see,That is the precious, the long-looked-for Love.
Words in this poem
- fain v. t.
- To be glad ; to wish or desire.
- lovingly adv.
- With love; affectionately.
- suppliant a.
- Asking earnestly and submissively; entreating; beseeching; supplicating. [F., p.pr. of supplier to entreat, L. supplicare. See Supplicate, and cf. Supplicant.]
- homeward a.
- Being in the direction of home; as, the homeward way.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Sonnets to My Mother, B. Heine, Nee Von Geldern II 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, Sonnets to My Mother, B. Heine, Nee Von Geldern II, in Poems and Ballads (1881), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #31726, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/heine-poems-ballads/sonnets-to-my-mother-b-heine-nee-von-geldern-ii.html, id L15312.
Form and metre
Sonnets to My Mother, B. Heine, Nee Von Geldern II is 14 lines in a single stanza. It rhymes ABBACDDCEEFGGF. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 84%). 96% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.1 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 7% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic pentameter.
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 ABBACDDCEEFGGF sideA · fareB · anywhereB · brideA · gateC · palmsD · almsD · hateC · foreverE · neverE · moveF · meG · seeG · loveF
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 iambic pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| In fond delusion once I left thy side; | 10 | ··˘/˘····· |
| Unto the wide world's end I fain would fare, | 10 | ·········· |
| To see if I might find Love anywhere, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| And lovingly embrace Love as a bride. | 9 | ·/˘˘/···· |
| Love sought I in all paths, at every gate; | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Oft and again outstretching suppliant palms, | 11 | ··˘/˘/˘/˘˘· |
| I begged in vain of Love the slightest alms, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| But the world laughed and offered me cold hate. | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Forever I aspired towards Love, forever | 11 | ˘/˘·˘/··˘/˘ |
| Towards Love, and ne'ertheless I found Love never,-- | 10 | ·········/ |
| And sick at heart, homeward my steps did move. | 10 | ····/˘···· |
| And lo! thou comest forth to welcome me; | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| And that which in thy swimming eyes I see, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| That is the precious, the long-looked-for Love. | 10 | ···/˘····· |
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.