Wrecked
Hope and love! everything shatteredAnd I myself, like a corpseThat the growling sea has cast up,I lie on the strand,On the barren cold strand.Before me surges the waste of waters,Behind me lies naught but grief and misery;And above me, march the clouds,--The formless, gray daughters of the air,Who from the sea, in buckets of mist,Draw the water,And laboriously drag and drag it,And spill it again in the sea--A melancholy, tedious task,And useless as my own life.
The waves murmur, the sea mews scream,Old recollections possess me;Forgotten dreams, banished visions,Tormentingly sweet, uprise.
There lives a woman in the North,A beautiful woman, royally beautiful.Her slender, cypress-like formIs swathed in a light, white raiment.Her locks, in their dusky fullness,Like a blessed night,Streaming from her braid-crowned head,Curl softly as a dreamAround the sweet, pale face;And from the sweet pale faceLarge and powerful beams an eye,Like a black sun.Oh thou black sun, how oft,How rapturously oft, I drank from theeThe wild flames of inspiration!And stood and reeled, intoxicated with fire.Then there hovered a smile as mild as a dove,About the arched, haughty lips.And the arched, haughty lipsBreathed forth words as sweet as moonlight,And delicate as the fragrance of the rose.And my soul soared aloft,And flew like an eagle up into the heavens.
Silence ye waves and sea mews!All is over! joy and hope--Hope and love! I lie on the groundAn empty, shipwrecked man,And press my glowing faceInto the moist sand.
Words in this poem
- corpse n.
- A human body in general, whether living or dead; -- sometimes contemptuosly. [OF. cors (sometimes written corps), F. corps, L. corpus; akin to AS. hrif womb. See Midriff, and cf. Corse, Corselet, Corps, Cuerpo.]
- formless a.
- Shapeless; without a determinate form; wanting regularity of shape.
- spill n.
- A bit of wood split off; a splinter. [sq. root170. Cf. Spell a splinter.]
- mews n.
- An alley where there are stables; a narrow passage; a confined place. [Eng.] [Prop. pl. of mew. See Mew a cage.]
- uprise v. i.
- To rise; to get up; to appear from below the horizon.
- royally adv.
- In a royal or kingly manner; like a king; as becomes a king.
- streaming a.
- Sending forth streams.
- rapturously adv.
- In a rapturous manner.
- drank n.
- Wild oats, or darnel grass. See Drake a plant. [Cf. 3d Drake.]
- haughty a.
- High; lofty; bold. [OE. hautein, F. hautain, fr. haut high, OF. also halt, fr. L. altus. See Altitude.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Wrecked 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, Wrecked, in Poems and Ballads (1881), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #31726, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/heine-poems-ballads/wrecked.html, id L15461.
Form and metre
Wrecked is 48 lines in 4 stanzas. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 77%). 92% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.6 syllables. 11 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 19% 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.
- 1 ---AA---------- shattered · corpse · up · strandA · strandA · waters · misery · clouds · air · mist · water · it · sea · task · life
- 3 ----AB--AACDECD--FFB-E- north · beautiful · form · raiment · fullnessA · nightB · head · dream · faceA · faceA · eyeC · sunD · oftE · theeC · inspirationD · fire · dove · lipsF · lipsF · moonlightB · rose · aloftE · heavens
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Hope and love! everything shattered | 8 | ···/˘·/˘ |
| And I myself, like a corpse | 7 | ···/··· |
| That the growling sea has cast up, | 8 | ··/˘···· |
| I lie on the strand, | 5 | ····· |
| On the barren cold strand. | 6 | ··/˘·· |
| Before me surges the waste of waters, | 10 | ···/˘···/˘ |
| Behind me lies naught but grief and misery; | 10 | ········/˘ |
| And above me, march the clouds,-- | 7 | ······· |
| The formless, gray daughters of the air, | 9 | ·/˘·/˘··· |
| Who from the sea, in buckets of mist, | 9 | ·····/˘·· |
| Draw the water, | 4 | ··/˘ |
| And laboriously drag and drag it, | 8 | ·˘/˘···· |
| And spill it again in the sea-- | 8 | ···˘/··· |
| A melancholy, tedious task, | 8 | ·/˘·˘/˘· |
| And useless as my own life. | 7 | ·/˘···· |
| The waves murmur, the sea mews scream, | 8 | ··/˘···· |
| Old recollections possess me; | 8 | ··˘/˘˘/· |
| Forgotten dreams, banished visions, | 8 | ˘/˘·/˘/˘ |
| Tormentingly sweet, uprise. | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| There lives a woman in the North, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| A beautiful woman, royally beautiful. | 9 | ·/˘/˘/˘/˘ |
| Her slender, cypress-like form | 7 | ·/˘/˘·· |
| Is swathed in a light, white raiment. | 8 | ······/˘ |
| Her locks, in their dusky fullness, | 8 | ····/˘/˘ |
| Like a blessed night, | 4 | ···· |
| Streaming from her braid-crowned head, | 8 | /˘····˘· |
| Curl softly as a dream | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| Around the sweet, pale face; | 6 | ······ |
| And from the sweet pale face | 6 | ······ |
| Large and powerful beams an eye, | 8 | ··/˘˘··· |
| Like a black sun. | 4 | ···· |
| Oh thou black sun, how oft, | 6 | ······ |
| How rapturously oft, I drank from thee | 10 | ·/˘˘˘····· |
| The wild flames of inspiration! | 8 | ·····˘/˘ |
| And stood and reeled, intoxicated with fire. | 11 | ····˘/˘·˘·/ |
| Then there hovered a smile as mild as a dove, | 11 | ··/˘······· |
| About the arched, haughty lips. | 8 | ····˘/˘· |
| And the arched, haughty lips | 7 | ···˘/˘· |
| Breathed forth words as sweet as moonlight, | 8 | ······/· |
| And delicate as the fragrance of the rose. | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| And my soul soared aloft, | 7 | ····˘˘/ |
| And flew like an eagle up into the heavens. | 12 | ····/˘····/˘ |
| Silence ye waves and sea mews! | 7 | /˘····· |
| All is over! joy and hope-- | 7 | ······· |
| Hope and love! I lie on the ground | 8 | ········ |
| An empty, shipwrecked man, | 7 | ·/˘/˘˘· |
| And press my glowing face | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Into the moist sand. | 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.