The Future

Rainer Maria Rilke 1875 (Prague) – 1926 (Montreux)



The future: time's excuse
to frighten us; too vast
a project, too large a morsel
for the heart's mouth.

Future, who won't wait for you?
Everyone is going there.
It suffices you to deepen
the absence that we are.

Translated by A. Poulin

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on May 02, 2023

14 sec read
428

Quick analysis:

Scheme XXXX XXXX X
Closest metre Iambic trimeter
Characters 235
Words 45
Stanzas 3
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 1

Rainer Maria Rilke

René Karl Wilhelm Johann Josef Maria Rilke — better known as Rainer Maria Rilke — was a Bohemian-Austrian poet and novelist, "widely recognized as one of the most lyrically intense German-language poets", writing in both verse and highly lyrical prose. more…

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