The Poet

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



O hour of my muse: why do you leave me,
Wounding me by the wingbeats of your flight?
Alone: what shall I use my mouth to utter?

How shall I pass my days? And how my nights?

I have no one to love. I have no home.
There is no center to sustain my life.
All things to which I give myself grow rich
and leave me spent, impoverished, alone.

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

21 sec read
100

Quick analysis:

Scheme XXX X XXXX
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 336
Words 72
Stanzas 3
Stanza Lengths 3, 1, 4

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…

All Rainer Maria Rilke poems | Rainer Maria Rilke Books

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    "The Poet" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Mar. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/29725/the-poet>.

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    Which poetic form consists of fourteen lines, typically written in iambic pentameter and follows a specific rhyme scheme?
    A Free verse
    B Haiku
    C Sonnet
    D Ballad