The Elegy

Georg Trakl 1887 (Salzburg) – 1914 (Kraków)



The girlfriend juggling with green flowers

Plays in moony gardens -

O! what glows behind yew hedges!

Golden mouth which stirs my lips,

And they ring out like the stars

Over the brook Kidron.

But the star-nebulas sink over the plain,

Dance wildly and unspeakably.

O! my girlfriend your lips

Pomegranate lips

Ripen on my crystalline mouth of shells.

Heavily the golden silence

Of the plain rests on us.

The blood of the children

Murdered by Herod

Steams to heaven.

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

24 sec read
69

Quick analysis:

Scheme X X X A X B B X A X X X B X B
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 455
Words 82
Stanzas 15
Stanza Lengths 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1

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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