Elegy Iv Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: ABCDECFE GHEEEIJEKKL EEMHNOPEQHRSTUCEVEW XYCHXGEGEEZ EA2EB2EC2KD2E2GF2G2H E2CH2QFI2CH REEEFEH2J2 K2L2M2EN2EM2CO2E2

O trees of life oh what when winter comesA
We are not of one mind Are not like birdsB
in unison migrating And overtakenC
overdue we thrust ourselves into the windD
and fall to earth into indifferent pondsE
Blossoming and withering we comprehend as oneC
And somewhere lions roam quite unawareF
in their magnificence of any weaknesssE
-
But we while wholly concentrating on one thingG
already feel the pressure of anotherH
Hatred is our first response And loversE
are they not forever invading one another'sE
boundaries although they promised spaceE
hunting and homeland Then for a sketchI
drawn at a moment's impulse a ground of contrastJ
is prepared painfully so that we may seeE
For they are most exact with us We do not knowK
the contours of our feelings We only knowK
what shapes them from the outsideL
-
Who has not sat afraid before his own heart'sE
curtain It lifted and displayed the sceneryE
of departure Easy to understand The well knownM
garden swaying just a little Then came the dancerH
Not he Enough However lightly he pretends to moveN
he is just disguised costumed an ordinary manO
who enters through the kitchen when coming homeP
I will not have these half filled human masksE
better the puppet It at least is fullQ
I will endure this well stuffed doll the wireH
the face that is nothing but appearance Here out frontR
I wait Even if the lights go down and I am toldS
There's nothing more to come even ifT
the grayish drafts of emptiness come drifting downU
from the deserted stage even if not oneC
of my now silent forebears sist beside meE
any longer not a woman not even a boyV
he with the brown and squinting eyesE
I'll still remain For one can always watchW
-
Am I not right You to whom life would tasteX
so bitter Father after you for my sakeY
slipped of mine that first muddy infusionC
of my necessity You kept on tasting FatherH
as I kept on growing troubled by the aftertasteX
of my so strange a future as you kept searchingG
my unfocused gaze you who so often sinceE
you died have been afraid for my well beingG
within my deepest hope relinquishing that calmnessE
the realms of equanimity such as the dead possessE
for my so small fate Am I not rightZ
-
And you my parents am I not right You who loved meE
for that small beginning of my love for youA2
from which I always shyly turned away becauseE
the distance in your features grew changedB2
even while I loved it into cosmic spaceE
where you no longer were and when I feelC2
inclined to wait before the puppet stage noK
rather to stare at is so intensely that in the endD2
to counter balance my searching gaze an angelE2
has to come as an actor and begin manipulatingG
the lifeless bodies of the puppets to performF2
Angel and puppet Now at last there is a playG2
Then what we seperate can come together by ourH
very presence And only then the entire cycleE2
of our own life seasons is revealed and set in motionC
Above beyond us the angel plays LookH2
must not the dying notice how unreal how fullQ
of pretense is all that we accomplish here whereF
nothing is to be itself O hours of childhoodI2
when behind each shape more that the past lay hiddenC
when that which lay before us was not the futureH
-
We grew of course and sometimes were impatientR
in growing up half for the sake of pleasing thoseE
with nothing left but their own grown upnessE
Yet when alone we entertained ourselvesE
with what alone endures we would stand thereF
in the infinite space that spans the world and toysE
upon a place which from the first beginnniingH2
had been prepared to serve a pure eventJ2
-
Who shows a child just as it stands Who places himK2
within his constellation with the measuring rodL2
of distance in his hand Who makes his deathM2
from gray bread that grows hard or leavesE
it there inside his rounded mouth jagged as the coreN2
of a sweet apple The minds of murderersE
are easily comprehended But this to contain deathM2
the whole of death even before life has begunC
to hold it all so gently within oneselfO2
and not be angry that is indescribableE2

Rainer Maria Rilke



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