Longing
Could I from this valley drear,Where the mist hangs heavily,Soar to some more blissful sphere,Ah! how happy should I be!Distant hills enchant my sight,Ever young and ever fair;To those hills I'd take my flightHad I wings to scale the air.
Harmonies mine ear assail,Tunes that breathe a heavenly calm;And the gently-sighing galeGreets me with its fragrant balm.Peeping through the shady bowers,Golden fruits their charms display.And those sweetly-blooming flowersNe'er become cold winter's prey.
In you endless sunshine bright,Oh! what bliss 'twould be to dwell!How the breeze on yonder heightMust the heart with rapture swell!Yet the stream that hems my pathChecks me with its angry frown,While its waves, in rising wrath,Weigh my weary spirit down.
See--a bark is drawing near,But, alas, the pilot fails!Enter boldly--wherefore fear?Inspiration fills its sails,Faith and courage make thine own,--Gods ne'er lend a helping-hand;'Tis by magic power aloneThou canst reach the magic land!
Words in this poem
- drear n.
- Sadness; dismalness.
- blissful a.
- Full of, characterized by, or causing, joy and felicity; happy in the highest degree.
- enchant v. t.
- To charm by sorcery; to act on by enchantment; to get control of by magical words and rites. [F. enchanter, L. incantare to chant or utter a magic formula over or against one, to bewitch; in in, against + cantare to sing. See Chant, and cf. Incantation.]
- sunshine n.
- The light of the sun, or the place where it shines; the direct rays of the sun, the place where they fall, or the warmth and light which they give.
- dwell v. i.
- To delay; to linger. [OE. dwellen, dwelien, to err, linger, AS. dwellan to deceive, hinder, delay, dwelian to err; akin to Icel. dvelja to delay, tarry, Sw. dväljas to dwell, Dan. dv]
- yonder adv.
- At a distance, but within view. [OE. yonder, ýonder; cf. OD. ginder, Goth. jaindr there. Yond, adv.]
- angry a.
- Troublesome; vexatious; rigorous. [See Anger.]
- boldly adv.
- In a bold manner. [AS. bealdlice.]
- wherefore adv.
- For which reason; so; -- used relatively. [Where + for.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Longing is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Poems of Schiller — Third period, Project Gutenberg ebook #6796; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Friedrich Schiller, Longing, in The Poems of Schiller: Third Period (1805), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #6796, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/schiller-third-period/longing.html, id L21818.
Form and metre
Longing is 32 lines in 4 stanzas of 8 lines each. The rhyme scheme is ABABCDCD, complete in 3 of its 4 stanzas. The metre is trochaic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 94%).
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 A-A-BCBC drearA · heavily · sphereA · be · sightB · fairC · flightB · airC
- 2 ABABCDCD assailA · calmB · galeA · balmB · bowersC · displayD · flowersC · preyD
- 3 ABABCDCD brightA · dwellB · heightA · swellB · pathC · frownD · wrathC · downD
- 4 ABABCDCD nearA · failsB · fearA · sailsB · ownC · handD · aloneC · landD
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Could I from this valley drear, | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Where the mist hangs heavily, | 7 | ····/˘˘ |
| Soar to some more blissful sphere, | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Ah! how happy should I be! | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Distant hills enchant my sight, | 7 | /˘·˘/·· |
| Ever young and ever fair; | 7 | /˘··/˘· |
| To those hills I'd take my flight | 7 | ······· |
| Had I wings to scale the air. | 7 | ······· |
| Harmonies mine ear assail, | 7 | /˘˘··˘/ |
| Tunes that breathe a heavenly calm; | 8 | ····/˘˘· |
| And the gently-sighing gale | 7 | ··/˘/˘· |
| Greets me with its fragrant balm. | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Peeping through the shady bowers, | 8 | /˘··/˘/˘ |
| Golden fruits their charms display. | 7 | /˘···˘/ |
| And those sweetly-blooming flowers | 8 | ··/˘/˘/˘ |
| Ne'er become cold winter's prey. | 7 | ·˘/·/˘· |
| In you endless sunshine bright, | 7 | ··/˘/·· |
| Oh! what bliss 'twould be to dwell! | 7 | ······· |
| How the breeze on yonder height | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Must the heart with rapture swell! | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Yet the stream that hems my path | 7 | ······· |
| Checks me with its angry frown, | 7 | ····/˘· |
| While its waves, in rising wrath, | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Weigh my weary spirit down. | 7 | ··/˘/˘· |
| See--a bark is drawing near, | 7 | ····/˘· |
| But, alas, the pilot fails! | 7 | ·˘/·/˘· |
| Enter boldly--wherefore fear? | 7 | /˘/˘/˘· |
| Inspiration fills its sails, | 7 | ·˘/˘··· |
| Faith and courage make thine own,-- | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Gods ne'er lend a helping-hand; | 7 | ····/˘· |
| 'Tis by magic power alone | 8 | ··/˘/˘˘/ |
| Thou canst reach the magic land! | 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.