Analysis of The Swan
Rainer Maria Rilke 1875 (Prague) – 1926 (Montreux)
This laboring of ours with all that remains undone,
as if still bound to it,
is like the lumbering gait of the swan.
And then our dying—releasing ourselves
from the very ground on which we stood—
is like the way he hesitantly lowers himself
into the water. It gently receives him,
and, gladly yielding, flows back beneath him,
as wave follows wave,
while he, now wholly serene and sure,
with regal composure,
allows himself to glide.
translation by Joanna Macy and Anita Barrows
Scheme | XXX XXX AAXXXX X |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 11001101110101 111111 1101001101 011010010001 101011111 1101110001001 01010110011 0101011011 11101 111100101 110010 010111 010101010001010 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 478 |
Words | 85 |
Sentences | 4 |
Stanzas | 4 |
Stanza Lengths | 3, 3, 6, 1 |
Lines Amount | 13 |
Letters per line (avg) | 29 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 95 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 21 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on May 02, 2023
- 25 sec read
- 1,323 Views
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