Analysis of Confiteor

Georg Trakl 1887 (Salzburg) – 1914 (Kraków)



The colored pictures which life paints,

I see them gloomily only by twilights,

Like frizzy distorted shadows, cloudy and cold,

Hardly born, already defeated by death.

And since the mask fell from every thing,

I see only fear, desperation, disgrace and plagues,

Mankind's heroless tragedy,

A bad play, staged on graves, corpses.

This terrible dream-view disgusts me.

But a higher authority wants me to stay,

A comedian who speaks his role,

Coerced, full of desperation - boredom!


Scheme A A X X X X B X B X X X
Poetic Form
Metre 01010111 1111001011 1101011001 10101001011 0101111001 111010100101 111100 01111110 110011011 101001001111 001001111 011101010
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 475
Words 79
Sentences 5
Stanzas 12
Stanza Lengths 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1
Lines Amount 12
Letters per line (avg) 32
Words per line (avg) 6
Letters per stanza (avg) 32
Words per stanza (avg) 6
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

24 sec read
89

Georg Trakl

Georg Trakl was an Austrian poet. He is considered one of the most important Austrian Expressionists. more…

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