To My Heart
Why, poor heart, so ceaseless languish?Why with such distresses smart?Nought alleviates thy anguish,What afflicts thee so, poor heart?
Heart, I comprehend not wrongly,Thou a captive art confest,Near Eliza thou beat'st stronglyAs thou'dst leap into her breast.
Since 'tis so then, little throbber,You and I, alas! must part,I'd not be thy comfort's robber;To her I'll resign thee, heart.
Yet the maid in compensationMust her own bestow on me,And with such remunerationNever shall I grieve for thee.
But should she, thy sorrows spurning,This exchange, poor heart, deny,Then I'll bear thee, heart, though mourning,From her far and hasty fly.
But, alas! no pain assuaging,That would but increase thy grief;If kind Death still not its raging,Granting thee a kind relief.
Words in this poem
- ceaseless a.
- Without pause or end; incessant.
- languish v. i.
- To cause to dr Shak.
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
To My Heart is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Bakchesarian Fountain and Other Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #8192; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Alexander Pushkin, To My Heart, in The Bakchesarian Fountain and Other Poems (1849), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #8192, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/pushkin-bakchesarian/to-my-heart.html, id L25570.
Form and metre
To My Heart is 24 lines in 6 stanzas of 4 lines each. The rhyme scheme is ABAB, complete in 5 of its 6 stanzas. The metre is trochaic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 92%).
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 ABAB languishA · smartB · anguishA · heartB
- 2 ABAB wronglyA · confestB · stronglyA · breastB
- 3 ABAB throbberA · partB · robberA · heartB
- 4 ABAB compensationA · meB · remunerationA · theeB
- 5 -A-A spurning · denyA · mourning · flyA
- 6 ABAB assuagingA · griefB · ragingA · reliefB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Why, poor heart, so ceaseless languish? | 8 | ····/˘/˘ |
| Why with such distresses smart? | 7 | ···˘/˘· |
| Nought alleviates thy anguish, | 8 | ·˘/˘˘·/˘ |
| What afflicts thee so, poor heart? | 7 | ·˘/···· |
| Heart, I comprehend not wrongly, | 8 | ···˘/·/˘ |
| Thou a captive art confest, | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Near Eliza thou beat'st strongly | 8 | ·˘/˘··/˘ |
| As thou'dst leap into her breast. | 7 | ······· |
| Since 'tis so then, little throbber, | 8 | ····/˘·· |
| You and I, alas! must part, | 7 | ···˘/·· |
| I'd not be thy comfort's robber; | 8 | ····/˘/˘ |
| To her I'll resign thee, heart. | 7 | ···˘/·· |
| Yet the maid in compensation | 8 | ·····˘/˘ |
| Must her own bestow on me, | 7 | ···˘/·· |
| And with such remuneration | 8 | ···˘·˘/˘ |
| Never shall I grieve for thee. | 7 | /˘····· |
| But should she, thy sorrows spurning, | 8 | ····/˘/˘ |
| This exchange, poor heart, deny, | 7 | ·˘/··˘/ |
| Then I'll bear thee, heart, though mourning, | 8 | ······/˘ |
| From her far and hasty fly. | 7 | ····/˘· |
| But, alas! no pain assuaging, | 8 | ·˘/··˘/˘ |
| That would but increase thy grief; | 7 | ···˘/·· |
| If kind Death still not its raging, | 8 | ······/˘ |
| Granting thee a kind relief. | 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.