Analysis of Song
Rainer Maria Rilke 1875 (Prague) – 1926 (Montreux)
(From the diaries of Malte Laurids Brigge)
You, whom I do not tell that all night long
I lie weeping,
whose very being makes me feel wanting
like a cradle.
You, who do not tell me, that you lie awake
thinking of me:--
what, if we carried all these longings within us
without ever being overwhelmed by them,
letting them pass?
Look at these lovers, tormented by love,
when first they begin confessing,
how soon they lie!
You make me feel alone. I try imagining:
one moment it is you, then it's the soaring wind;
a fragrance comes and goes but never lasts.
Oh, within my arms I lost all whom I loved!
Only you remain, always reborn again.
For since I never held you, I hold you fast.
Translated by Albert Ernest Flemming
Scheme | A AAAX AXXXX XAX AXXXXX A |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Tetractys (30%) Etheree (20%) |
Metre | 101001111 1111111111 1110 1101011110 1010 11111111101 1011 111101110011 0110100111 1011 111101011 11101010 1111 111101110100 110111110101 0101011101 10111111111 1010111101 11110111111 0101101010 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 707 |
Words | 137 |
Sentences | 9 |
Stanzas | 6 |
Stanza Lengths | 1, 4, 5, 3, 6, 1 |
Lines Amount | 20 |
Letters per line (avg) | 28 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 93 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 22 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 41 sec read
- 168 Views
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