Analysis of Psalm

Georg Trakl 1887 (Salzburg) – 1914 (Kraków)



Stillness; as if blind people sank down by autumnal wall,

Listening with rotten temples to the flight of the ravens;

Golden stillness of autumn, the countenance of the father in the flickering sun

At evening the old village decays in the peace of brown oaks,

The red hammering of the smithy, a pounding heart.

Stillness; in slow hands the maid hides the hyacinthine forehead

Under fluttering sunflowers. Fear and silence

Of extinguishing eyes fulfills the dusking room, the halting steps

Of old women, the escape of the purple mouth which slowly expires in the darkness.

Taciturn evening in vine. From the low rafters

A nocturnal moth fell, nymph buried into bluish sleep.

In the courtyard the farm boy slaughters a lamb, the sweet smell of the blood

Clouds our foreheads, the dark coolness of the fountain.

The gloom of dying asters regrets, golden voices in the wind.

When it becomes night you look at me from moldered eyes,

In blue stillness your cheeks decayed to dust.

So quietly a weed's fire expires, the black hamlet in the ground falls silent

As if the cross climbed down the blue hill of Calvary,

The silent earth ejected its dead.


Scheme X X A X X B X X X X X X A X X X X X B
Poetic Form
Metre 10111101110101 100110101011010 101011001001010001001 110011001001111 011001010101 100110110110 10100101010 101001010110101 1110001101011100100010 10100110110 00101111001101 0010111001011101 110101101010 0111010011010001 110111111111 0110110111 110001100100110001110 1101110111100 010101011
Closest metre Iambic heptameter
Characters 1,131
Words 199
Sentences 10
Stanzas 19
Stanza Lengths 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1
Lines Amount 19
Letters per line (avg) 48
Words per line (avg) 10
Letters per stanza (avg) 48
Words per stanza (avg) 10
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

1:00 min read
104

Georg Trakl

Georg Trakl was an Austrian poet. He is considered one of the most important Austrian Expressionists. more…

All Georg Trakl poems | Georg Trakl Books

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