Lady on a Balcony
Lady on a Balcony - meaning Summary
Presence Alters the Evening
The poem depicts a woman stepping onto a balcony and transforming the scene by her presence. Rilke contrasts the dark interior—like a cameo ground—with the sudden brightness she brings, making evening seem to begin only when she appears. Her partial visibility, especially her hands, suggests a shift from enclosed domesticity toward airy, almost celestial freedom. The final lines imply she becomes motion and light, carried outward and receptive to the world.
Read Complete AnalysesSuddenly she steps, wrapped into the wind, brightly into brightness, as if singled out, while now the room as though cut to fit behind her fills the door darkly like the ground of cameo, that lets a glimmer through at the edges; and you think the evening wasn't there before she stepped out, and on the railing set forth just a little of herself, just her hands, --to be completely light: as if passed on by the rows of houses to the heavens, to be swayed by everything.
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