By Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe I
Thou that from the heavens art,Every pain and sorrow stillest,And the doubly wretched heartDoubly with refreshment fillest,I am weary with contending!Why this rapture and unrest?Peace descendingCome, ah, come into my breast!
Words in this poem
- unrest n.
- Want of rest or repose; unquietness; sleeplessness; uneasiness; disquietude.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
By Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe I is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Complete Poetical Works of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Project Gutenberg ebook #1365; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, By Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe I, in The Complete Poetical Works (1839–1882), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1365, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/longfellow-poems/by-johann-wolfgang-von-goethe-i.html, id L18065.
Form and metre
By Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe I is 8 lines in a single stanza. It rhymes ABABCDCD. The metre is trochaic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 95%). 96% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.1 syllables. 4 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 25% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in trochaic 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 ABABCDCD artA · stillestB · heartA · fillestB · contendingC · unrestD · descendingC · breastD
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 trochaic tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Thou that from the heavens art, | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Every pain and sorrow stillest, | 9 | /˘˘··/˘/˘ |
| And the doubly wretched heart | 7 | ··/˘/˘· |
| Doubly with refreshment fillest, | 8 | /˘·˘/˘/˘ |
| I am weary with contending! | 8 | ··/˘·˘/˘ |
| Why this rapture and unrest? | 7 | ··/˘·˘/ |
| Peace descending | 4 | ·˘/˘ |
| Come, ah, come into my breast! | 7 | ······· |
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.