What Survives
Rainer Maria Rilke 1875 (Prague) – 1926 (Montreux)
Who says that all must vanish?
Who knows, perhaps the flight
of the bird you wound remains,
and perhaps flowers survive
caresses in us, in their ground.
It isn't the gesture that lasts,
but it dresses you again in gold
armor --from breast to knees--
and the battle was so pure
an Angel wears it after you.
Translated by A. Poulin
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 24, 2023
- 19 sec read
- 356 Views
Quick analysis:
Scheme | XXXXX XXXXX X |
---|---|
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 327 |
Words | 63 |
Stanzas | 3 |
Stanza Lengths | 5, 5, 1 |
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"What Survives" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 19 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/29750/what-survives>.
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