Tempest
Gloomy lowers the tempest over the sea,And through the black wall of cloudIs unsheathed the jagged lightning,Swift outflashing, and swift-vanishing,Like a jest from the brain of Chronos.Over the barren, billowy water,Far away rolls the thunder,And up leap the white water-steeds,Which Boreas himself begotOut of the graceful mare of Erichthon,And the sea-birds flutter around,Like the shadowy dead on the Styx,Whom Charon repels from his nocturnal boat.
Poor, merry, little vessel,Dancing yonder the most wretched of dances!Eolus sends it his liveliest comrades,Who wildly play to the jolliest measures;One pipes his horn, another blows,A third scrapes his growling bass-viol.And the uncertain sailor stands at the rudder,And constantly gazes at the compass,The trembling soul of the ship;And he raises his hands in supplication to Heaven--"Oh, save me, Castor, gigantic hero!And thou conquering wrestler, Pollux."
Words in this poem
- jest n.
- A deed; an action; a gest. [OE. jeste, geste, deed, action, story, tale, OF. geste, LL. gesta, orig., exploits, neut. pl. from L. gestus, p. p. of gerere to bear, carry, accomplish, perfor]
- billowy a.
- Of or pertaining to billows; swelling or swollen into large waves; full of billows or surges; resembling billows.
- boreas n.
- The north wind; -- usually a personification. [L. boreas, Gr. .]
- styx n.
- The principal river of the lower world, which had to be crossed in passing to the regions of the dead.
- charon n.
- The son of Erebus and Nox, whose office it was to ferry the souls of the dead over the Styx, a river of the infernal regions.
- yonder adv.
- At a distance, but within view. [OE. yonder, ýonder; cf. OD. ginder, Goth. jaindr there. Yond, adv.]
- wrestler n.
- One who wrestles; one who is skillful in wrestling. [AS. wræstlere.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Tempest 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, Tempest, in Poems and Ballads (1881), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #31726, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/heine-poems-ballads/tempest.html, id L15460.
Form and metre
Tempest is 25 lines in 2 verse paragraphs. It is unrhymed, as far as the pronouncing dictionary can tell. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 74%). 81% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 9.1 syllables. 12 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 8% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic 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.
- 2 -A-AA------- vessel · dancesA · comrades · measuresA · blowsA · viol · rudder · compass · ship · heaven · hero · pollux
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 tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Gloomy lowers the tempest over the sea, | 10 | /˘/˘·/˘··· |
| And through the black wall of cloud | 7 | ······· |
| Is unsheathed the jagged lightning, | 8 | ···˘··/˘ |
| Swift outflashing, and swift-vanishing, | 9 | ······/˘˘ |
| Like a jest from the brain of Chronos. | 9 | ········· |
| Over the barren, billowy water, | 9 | ··/˘/˘˘/˘ |
| Far away rolls the thunder, | 7 | ·˘/··/˘ |
| And up leap the white water-steeds, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Which Boreas himself begot | 8 | ·/˘˘˘/˘/ |
| Out of the graceful mare of Erichthon, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| And the sea-birds flutter around, | 8 | ····/˘·· |
| Like the shadowy dead on the Styx, | 8 | ··/˘···· |
| Whom Charon repels from his nocturnal boat. | 11 | ·/˘˘/··˘/˘· |
| Poor, merry, little vessel, | 7 | ·/˘/˘/˘ |
| Dancing yonder the most wretched of dances! | 11 | /˘/˘··/˘·/˘ |
| Eolus sends it his liveliest comrades, | 10 | ·····/·˘/· |
| Who wildly play to the jolliest measures; | 10 | ·/˘···/˘/˘ |
| One pipes his horn, another blows, | 8 | ····˘/˘· |
| A third scrapes his growling bass-viol. | 9 | ····/˘·/˘ |
| And the uncertain sailor stands at the rudder, | 12 | ··˘/˘/˘···/˘ |
| And constantly gazes at the compass, | 9 | ·/˘/˘··/˘ |
| The trembling soul of the ship; | 8 | ·/˘˘···· |
| And he raises his hands in supplication to Heaven-- | 13 | ··/˘········/ |
| "Oh, save me, Castor, gigantic hero! | 10 | ···/˘˘/˘/˘ |
| And thou conquering wrestler, Pollux." | 9 | ··/˘/˘˘/˘ |
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.