The Alpine Horn
The Alpine horn! the Alpine horn!Oh! through my native sky,Might I but hear its deep notes borneOnce more--but once--and die!
Yet, no! Midst breezy hills thy breath,So full of hope and morn,Would win me from the bed of death--O joyous Alpine horn!
But here the echo of that blast,To many a battle known,Seems mournfully to wander past,A wild, shrill, wailing tone!
Haunt me no more! for slavery’s airThy proud notes were not born;The dream but deepens my despair--Be hush’d, thou Alpine horn!
Words in this poem
- breezy a.
- Characterized by, or having, breezes; airy.
- morn n.
- The first part of the day; the morning; -- used chiefly in poetry. [OE. morwen, morgen, AS. morgen; akin to D. morgen, OS. morgan, G. morgen, Icel. morginn, morgunn, Sw. morgon, Dan. morgen, Goth. maúrgins. Cf. Morrow, Morning.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Alpine Horn is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Poems of Felicia Hemans, Project Gutenberg ebook #66785; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Felicia Hemans, The Alpine Horn, in Poems (1808–1835), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #66785, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hemans-poems/the-alpine-horn.html, id L19649.
Form and metre
The Alpine Horn is 16 lines in 4 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABAB. The metre is common measure, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 89%).
See other poems in common measure.
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 ABAB hornA · skyB · borneA · dieB
- 2 ABAB breathA · mornB · deathA · hornB
- 3 ABAB blastA · knownB · pastA · toneB
- 4 ABAB airA · bornB · despairA · hornB
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 common measure. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| The Alpine horn! the Alpine horn! | 8 | ·/···/·· |
| Oh! through my native sky, | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Might I but hear its deep notes borne | 8 | ········ |
| Once more--but once--and die! | 6 | ······ |
| Yet, no! Midst breezy hills thy breath, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| So full of hope and morn, | 6 | ······ |
| Would win me from the bed of death-- | 8 | ········ |
| O joyous Alpine horn! | 6 | ·/˘/·· |
| But here the echo of that blast, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| To many a battle known, | 7 | ·/˘·/˘· |
| Seems mournfully to wander past, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| A wild, shrill, wailing tone! | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Haunt me no more! for slavery’s air | 9 | ·····/˘˘· |
| Thy proud notes were not born; | 6 | ······ |
| The dream but deepens my despair-- | 8 | ···/˘·˘/ |
| Be hush’d, thou Alpine horn! | 6 | ···/·· |
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.