Analysis of Homecoming

Georg Trakl 1887 (Salzburg) – 1914 (Kraków)



When the evening breathes golden rest

Forest and dark meadow before which

Man is a looker,

A shepherd, dwelling in the flocks' dusking stillness,

The patience of the red beeches;

So clearly since it has become autumn. By the hill

The lonely one listens to the flight of birds,

To dark meaning and the shadows of the dead

Have gathered more seriously around him;

Cool mignonette scent fulfills him with shudders,

The huts of the villagers the elder,

Where in former times the child dwelled.

Memory, buried hope

Is preserved by these brown rafters,

Over which dahlias hang

So that the hands strive after them,

In the brown garden the shimmering step

Forbidden loving, dark year,

That from blue eyelids the tears

Of the stranger fell irresistibly.

From brown treetops dew drips,

When that one, a blue deer, awakes on the hill,

Listening to the loud calls of the fishermen

By the evening pond

To the amorphous cry of the bats;

But in golden stillness

The drunken heart dwells

Full of its noble death.


Scheme X X A B B C X X X D A X X D X X X X X X X C X X X B X X
Poetic Form
Metre 10101101 10011011 11010 01010001110 0101011 1101110110101 01011010111 1110001101 11011000011 111011110 0110100010 10101011 100101 10111110 10111 11011101 0011001001 1001011 111101 101010100 11111 1110111101 100101110100 10101 100101101 101010 01011 111101
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 977
Words 176
Sentences 5
Stanzas 28
Stanza Lengths 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1
Lines Amount 28
Letters per line (avg) 29
Words per line (avg) 6
Letters per stanza (avg) 29
Words per stanza (avg) 6
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 20, 2023

52 sec read
134

Georg Trakl

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

All Georg Trakl poems | Georg Trakl Books

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