Analysis of As Once the Winged Energy of Delight

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



As once the winged energy of delight
carried you over childhood's dark abysses,
now beyond your own life build the great
arch of unimagined bridges.

Wonders happen if we can succeed
in passing through the harshest danger;
but only in a bright and purely granted
achievement can we realize the wonder.

To work with Things in the indescribable
relationship is not too hard for us;
the pattern grows more intricate and subtle,
and being swept along is not enough.

Take your practiced powers and stretch them out
until they span the chasm between two
contradictions...For the god
wants to know himself in you.


Scheme XAXA XBXB CACX XDXD
Poetic Form Quatrain  (75%)
Metre 1101100101 10110111 101111101 1101010 101011101 010101010 11000101010 0101110010 1111000100 010111111 01011100010 0101011101 1110100111 0111010011 101 1110101
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 598
Words 106
Sentences 6
Stanzas 4
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4, 4
Lines Amount 16
Letters per line (avg) 31
Words per line (avg) 6
Letters per stanza (avg) 123
Words per stanza (avg) 26
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 29, 2023

32 sec read
428

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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