Evening

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



The sky puts on the darkening blue coat
held for it by a row of ancient trees;
you watch: and the lands grow distant in your sight,
one journeying to heaven, one that falls;

and leave you, not at home in either one,
not quite so still and dark as the darkened houses,
not calling to eternity with the passion of what becomes
     a star each night, and rises;

and leave you (inexpressibly to unravel)
your life, with its immensity and fear,
so that, now bounded, now immeasurable,
it is alternately stone in you and star.

Translated by Stephen Mitchell

Submitted by zenfishsticks

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 27, 2023

31 sec read
145

Quick analysis:

Scheme XAXX XBXB CXCX C A
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 574
Words 105
Stanzas 5
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4, 1, 1

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…

All Rainer Maria Rilke poems | Rainer Maria Rilke Books

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    "Evening" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Mar. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/29661/evening>.

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