Death
Rainer Maria Rilke 1875 (Prague) – 1926 (Montreux)
Come thou, thou last one, whom I recognize,
unbearable pain throughout this body's fabric:
as I in my spirit burned, see, I now burn in thee:
the wood that long resisted the advancing flames
which thou kept flaring, I now am nourishinig
and burn in thee.
My gentle and mild being through thy ruthless fury
has turned into a raging hell that is not from here.
Quite pure, quite free of future planning, I mounted
the tangled funeral pyre built for my suffering,
so sure of nothing more to buy for future needs,
while in my heart the stored reserves kept silent.
Is it still I, who there past all recognition burn?
Memories I do not seize and bring inside.
O life! O living! O to be outside!
And I in flames. And no one here who knows me.
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 20, 2023
- 42 sec read
- 290 Views
Quick analysis:
Scheme | XABXAB BXXXXX XCCB |
---|---|
Closest metre | Iambic hexameter |
Characters | 729 |
Words | 141 |
Stanzas | 3 |
Stanza Lengths | 6, 6, 4 |
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"Death" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 10 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/29649/death>.
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