Analysis of The Sisters

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



Look how the same possibilities
unfold in their opposite demeanors,
as though one saw different ages
passing through two identical rooms.

Each thinks that she props up the other,
while resting wearily on her support;
and they can't make use of one another,
for they cause blood to rest on blood,

when as in the former times they softly touch
and try, along the tree-lined walks,
to feel themselves conducted and to lead;
ah, the ways they go are not the same.


Scheme XXXX AXAX XXXX
Poetic Form
Metre 11010100 0101100010 111110010 101101001 111111010 1101001001 0111111010 11111111 11001011101 01010111 1101010011 101111101
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 456
Words 84
Sentences 3
Stanzas 3
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4
Lines Amount 12
Letters per line (avg) 30
Words per line (avg) 7
Letters per stanza (avg) 122
Words per stanza (avg) 27
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 28, 2023

25 sec read
791

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…

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