The Blindman's Song
Rainer Maria Rilke 1875 (Prague) – 1926 (Montreux)
I am blind, you outsiders. It is a curse,
a contradiction, a tiresome farce,
and every day I despair.
I put my hand on the arm of my wife
(colorless hand on colorless sleeve)
and she walks me through empty air.
You push and shove and think that you've been
sounding different from stone against stone,
but you are mistaken: I alone
live and suffer and howl.
In me there is an endless outcry
and I can't tell what's crying, whether its my
broken heart or my bowels.
Are the tunes familiar? You don't sing them like this:
how could you understand?
Each morning the sunlight comes into your house,
and you welcome it as a friend.
And you know what it's like to see face-to-face;
and that tempts you to be kind.
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 42 sec read
- 152 Views
Quick analysis:
Scheme | XXAXXA XBBXCCX XXXXXX |
---|---|
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 697 |
Words | 135 |
Stanzas | 3 |
Stanza Lengths | 6, 7, 6 |
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"The Blindman's Song" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 10 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/29717/the-blindman's-song>.
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