Night (O you whose countenance)
Rainer Maria Rilke 1875 (Prague) – 1926 (Montreux)
Night. O you whose countenance, dissolved
in deepness, hovers above my face.
You who are the heaviest counterweight
to my astounding contemplation.
Night, that trembles as reflected in my eyes,
but in itself strong;
inexhaustible creation, dominant,
enduring beyond the earth's endurance;
Night, full of newly created stars that leave
trails of fire streaming from their seams
as they soar in inaudible adventure
through interstellar space:
how, overshadowed by your all-embracing vastness,
I appear minute!---
Yet, being one with the ever more darkening earth,
I dare to be in you.
Translated by Albert Ernest Flemming
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 26, 2023
- 29 sec read
- 208 Views
Quick analysis:
Scheme | XAXX XXXX XXXA XXXX X |
---|---|
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 611 |
Words | 98 |
Stanzas | 5 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 1 |
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"Night (O you whose countenance)" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 29 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/29697/night-(o-you-whose-countenance)>.
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