Analysis of To Johnanna

Georg Trakl 1887 (Salzburg) – 1914 (Kraków)



Often I hear your steps

Ring through the alley.

In the small brown garden

The blueness of your shadow.

In the dawning bower

I sat in silence with the wine.

A dropp of blood

Sank from your temple

Into the singing glass

Hour of unending gloom.

From stars a snowy wind

Blows through the foliage.

Any death, the night

The pale man suffers.

Your purple mouth

Dwells a wound in me.

As if I came from the green

Fir hills and legends

Of our homeland,

Which we long forgot -

Who are we? Blue lament

Of a mossy forest spring,

Where the violets

Secretly scent in spring.

A peaceful village in summer

Once sheltered the childhood

Of our race,

Dying off now at the evening-

Hill the white grandchildren

We dream the terror

Of our nightly blood

Shadows in stony city.


Scheme X A B X C X D X X X X X X X X A X X X X X E X E C X X E B C D A
Poetic Form
Metre 101111 11010 001110 010111 001010 11010101 0111 11110 010101 1010101 110101 11010 10101 01110 1101 10101 1111101 11010 1101 11101 111101 101101 10100 100101 01010010 11001 1101 10111010 10110 11010 110101 101010
Closest metre Iambic trimeter
Characters 730
Words 143
Sentences 11
Stanzas 32
Stanza Lengths 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1
Lines Amount 32
Letters per line (avg) 19
Words per line (avg) 4
Letters per stanza (avg) 19
Words per stanza (avg) 4
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

42 sec read
91

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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