Analysis of Song Of The Orphan

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



I am no one and never will be anyone,
for I am far too small to claim to be;
not even later.

Mothers and Fathers,
take pity on me.

I fear it will not pay to raise me:
I shall fall victim to the mower's scythe.
No one can find me useful now: I am too young,
and tomorrow will be too late.

I only have one dress,
worn thin and faded,
but it will last an eternity
even before God, perhaps.

I only have this whispy hair
(that always remained the same)
yet once was someone's dearest love.

Now he has nothing that he loves.

Translated by Albert Ernest Flemming


Scheme XAX XA AXXX XXAX XXX X X
Poetic Form
Metre 11110101110 1111111111 11010 10010 11011 111111111 111101011 111111011111 0011111 110111 11010 111110100 1001101 1101111 110101 1111101 11110111 0101101010
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 546
Words 113
Sentences 8
Stanzas 7
Stanza Lengths 3, 2, 4, 4, 3, 1, 1
Lines Amount 18
Letters per line (avg) 24
Words per line (avg) 6
Letters per stanza (avg) 61
Words per stanza (avg) 16
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 10, 2023

34 sec read
218

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…

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