Analysis of A Sybil
Rainer Maria Rilke 1875 (Prague) – 1926 (Montreux)
Long before our time they called her old,
But she'd walk down the same road every day.
Her age became too much to say
In years — and, like a forest's, would be told
In centuries. She comes to stand at dusk —
Her spot each time the same — and to foretell.
She is a hollow, wrinkled husk,
Dark as a fire-gutted citadel.
She has to turn her flock of talking loose
Or it will grow too crowded to relieve.
Flapping and screaming, words are flying all
Around her. Then, returning home to roost,
They find a perch beneath her eyebrows' eaves,
And in that shadow wait for night to fall.
Scheme | ABBA CDCD XXE XXE |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1011011101 11110111001 01011111 0101010111 0100111111 0111010101 11010101 110101010 1111011101 1111110101 1001011101 0101010111 110101011 001111111 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 583 |
Words | 114 |
Sentences | 8 |
Stanzas | 4 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 3, 3 |
Lines Amount | 14 |
Letters per line (avg) | 32 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 111 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 28 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on May 01, 2023
- 34 sec read
- 175 Views
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