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
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on May 02, 2023
- 25 sec read
- 1,315 Views
Quick analysis:
Scheme | XXX XXX AAXXXX X |
---|---|
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 478 |
Words | 85 |
Stanzas | 4 |
Stanza Lengths | 3, 3, 6, 1 |
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"The Swan" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Mar. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/29739/the-swan>.
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