Analysis of Lady At A Mirror
Rainer Maria Rilke 1875 (Prague) – 1926 (Montreux)
As in sleeping-drink spices
softly she loosens in the liquid-clear
mirror her fatigued demeanor;
and she puts her smile deep inside.
And she waits while the liquid
rises from it; then she pours her hair
into the mirror, and, lifting one
wondrous shoulder from the evening gown,
she drinks quietly from her image. She drinks
what a lover would drink feeling dazed,
searching it, full of mistrust; and she only
beckons to her maid when at the bottom
of her mirror she finds candles, wardrobes,
and the cloudy dregs of a late hour.
Translated by Edward Snow
Scheme | XXAX XXXX XXX XXA X |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1010110 1011000101 10001010 01101101 0111010 101111101 010100101 101010101 11100101011 101011101 10111010110 1010111010 101011101 0010110110 0101101 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 548 |
Words | 99 |
Sentences | 4 |
Stanzas | 5 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 3, 3, 1 |
Lines Amount | 15 |
Letters per line (avg) | 30 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 89 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 19 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 16, 2023
- 29 sec read
- 165 Views
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