Analysis of Exposed on the cliffs of the heart

Rainer Maria Rilke 1875 (Prague) – 1926 (Montreux)



Exposed on the cliffs of the heart. Look, how tiny down there,
look: the last village of words and, higher,
(but how tiny) still one last
farmhouse of feeling. Can you see it?
Exposed on the cliffs of the heart. Stoneground
under your hands. Even here, though,
something can bloom; on a silent cliff-edge
an unknowing plant blooms, singing, into the air.
But the one who knows? Ah, he began to know
and is quiet now, exposed on the cliffs of the heart.
While, with their full awareness,
many sure-footed mountain animals pass
or linger. And the great sheltered birds flies, slowly
circling, around the peak's pure denial. - But
without a shelter, here on the cliffs of the heart...


Scheme ABCDCEFAEGHIJKG
Poetic Form Tetractys  (20%)
Metre 01101101111011 1011011010 1110111 11101111 011011011 10111011 1011101011 101011100101 10111110111 0110101101101 1111010 10110101001 110001101110 100010110101 010101101101
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 675
Words 122
Sentences 12
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 15
Lines Amount 15
Letters per line (avg) 35
Words per line (avg) 8
Letters per stanza (avg) 526
Words per stanza (avg) 120
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 26, 2023

36 sec read
282

Rainer Maria Rilke

René Karl Wilhelm Johann Josef Maria Rilke — better known as Rainer Maria Rilke — was a Bohemian-Austrian poet and novelist, "widely recognized as one of the most lyrically intense German-language poets", writing in both verse and highly lyrical prose. more…

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