Analysis of Night (This night, agitated by the growing storm)

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



This night, agitated by the growing storm,
how it has suddenly expanded its dimensions--,
that ordinarily would have gone unnoticed,
like a cloth folded, and hidden in the folds of time.

Where the stars give resistance it does not stop there,
neither does it begin within the forest's depths,
nor show upon the surface of my face
nor with your appearance.

The lamps keep swaying, fully unaware:
is our light lying?
Is night the only reality
that has endured through thousands of years?

Translated by Albert Ernest Flemming


Scheme XXXX AXXX ABXX B
Poetic Form
Metre 1110010101 1111000101010 10100111010 1011001000111 101101011111 101101010101 1101010111 111010 011101001 110110 1101010 110111011 0101101010
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 518
Words 90
Sentences 5
Stanzas 4
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4, 1
Lines Amount 13
Letters per line (avg) 32
Words per line (avg) 7
Letters per stanza (avg) 105
Words per stanza (avg) 22
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 11, 2023

27 sec read
87

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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    Which poet is known for writing "Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night"?
    A Dylan Thomas
    B William Shakespeare
    C Sylvia Plath
    D T.S. Eliot