Elegy I Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: ABCDEFGHIHJKLMNGHOPE QRQST UTVWHXYZA2B2TC2D2E2H F2EG2HRBH2B LHI2GJ2K2YL2M2 N2O2BP2Q2YR2S2T2ABQU 2V2W2X2 EEI2EY2Z2A3B3HC3QD3Y CE3XF3G3 EH3I3I3B3J3O2HB3HB3E H2EB3

Who if I cried out would hear me among the angels'A
hierarchies and even if one of them suddenlyB
pressed me against his heart I would perishC
in the embrace of his stronger existenceD
For beauty is nothing but the beginning of terrorE
which we are barely able to endure and are awedF
because it serenely disdains to annihilate usG
Each single angel is terrifyingH
And so I force myself swallow and hold backI
the surging call of my dark sobbingH
Oh to whom can we turn for helpJ
Not angels not humansK
and even the knowing animals are aware that we feelL
little secure and at home in our interpreted worldM
There remains perhaps some tree on a hillsideN
daily for us to see yesterday's street remains for usG
stayed moved in with us and showed no signs of leavingH
Oh and the night the night when the windO
full of cosmic space invades our frightened facesP
Whom would it not remain for that longed afterE
gently disenchanting night painfully there for theQ
solitary heart to achieve Is it easier for loversR
Don't you know yet Fling out of your arms theQ
emptiness into the spaces we breath perhaps the birdsS
will feel the expanded air in their more ferven flightT
-
Yes the springtime were in need of you Often a starU
waited for you to espy it and sense its lightT
A wave rolled toward you out of the distant pastV
or as you walked below an open windowW
a violin gave itself to your hearingH
All this was trust But could you manage itX
Were you not always distraught by expectationY
as if all this were announcing the arrivalZ
of a beloved Where would you find a placeA2
to hide her with all your great strange thoughtsB2
coming and going and often staying for the nightT
When longing overcomes you sing of women in loveC2
for their famous passion is far from immortal enoughD2
Those whom you almost envy the abandoned andE2
desolate ones whom you found so much more lovingH
than those gratified Begin ever new againF2
the praise you cannot attain rememberE
the hero lives on and survives even his downfallG2
was for him only a pretext for achievingH
his final birth But nature exhausted takes loversR
back into itself as if such creative forces could never beB
achieved a second timeH2
Have you thought of Gaspara Stampa sufficientlyB
-
that any girl abandoned by her lover may feelL
from that far intenser example of lovingH
Ah might I become like her Should not their oldestI2
sufferings finally become more fruitful for usG
Is it not time that lovingly we freed ourselvesJ2
from the beloved and quivering enduredK2
as the arrow endures the bow string's tensionY
and in this tense release becomes more than itselfL2
For staying is nowhereM2
-
Voices voices Listen my heart as only saintsN2
have listened until the gigantic call lifted themO2
clear off the ground Yet they went on impossiblyB
kneeling completely unawares so intense wasP2
their listening Not that you could endureQ2
the voice of God far from it But listenY
to the voice of the wind and the ceaseless messageR2
that forms itself out of silence They sweepS2
toward you now from those who died youngT2
Whenever they entered a church in Rome or NaplesA
did not their fate quietly speak to you as recentlyB
as the tablet did in Santa Maria FormosaQ
What do they want of me to quietly removeU2
the appearance of suffered injustice thatV2
at times hinders a little their spirits fromW2
freely proceeding onwardX2
-
Of course it is strange to inhabit the earth no longerE
to no longer use skills on had barely time to acquireE
not to observe roses and other things that promisedI2
so much in terms of a human future no longerE
to be what one was in infinitely anxious handsY2
to even discard one's own name as easily as a childZ2
abandons a broken toyA3
Strange not to desire to continue wishing one's wishesB3
Strange to notice all that was related flutteringH
so loosely in space And being dead is hard workC3
and full of retrieving before one can gradually feel aQ
trace of eternity Yes but the liviing makeD3
the mistake of drawing too sharp a distinctionY
Angels they say are often unable to distinguishC
between moving among the living or the deadE3
The eternal torrent whirls all ages along with itX
through both realms forever and their voices are lost inF3
its thunderous roarG3
-
In the end the early departed have no longerE
need of us One is gently weaned from thingsH3
of this world as a child outgrows the needI3
of its mother's breast But we who have needI3
of those great mysteries we for whom grief isB3
so often the source of spiritual growthJ3
could we exist without themO2
Is the legend vain that tells of music's beginningH
in the midst of the mourning for LinosB3
the daring first sounds of song piercingH
the barren numbness and how in that stunned spaceB3
an almost godlike youth suddenly left foreverE
and the emptiness felt for the first timeH2
those harmonious vibrations which now enraptureE
and comfort and help usB3

Rainer Maria Rilke



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