A Swarm Of Gnats

Hermann Hesse 1877 (Calw) – 1962 (Montagnola)



Many thousand glittering motes
Crowd forward greedily together
In trembling circles.
Extravagantly carousing away
For a whole hour rapidly vanishing,
They rave, delirious, a shrill whir,
Shivering with joy against death.
While kingdoms, sunk into ruin,
Whose thrones, heavy with gold, instantly scattered
Into night and legend, without leaving a trace,
Have never known so fierce a dancing.

Translated by James Wright
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on May 03, 2023

18 sec read
404

Quick analysis:

Scheme XAXXBAXXXXB X
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 406
Words 62
Stanzas 2
Stanza Lengths 11, 1

Hermann Hesse

Hermann Hesse was a German poet, novelist, and painter. more…

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