Rainer Maria Rilke

Sense of Something Coming

Sense of Something Coming - meaning Summary

Anticipation of an Unseen Storm

The speaker likens themselves to a flag sensing an approaching wind while the world remains outwardly still. The poem expresses a tense foreboding: awareness of an inevitable, turbulent change that others do not yet perceive. Inner agitation alternates between impulse and retreat, leaving the speaker to face the coming storm in solitude. It describes the emotional experience of anticipation, vulnerability, and solitary readiness before an imminent upheaval.

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I am like a flag in the center of open space. I sense ahead the wind which is coming, and must live it through. while the things of the world still do not move: the doors still close softly, and the chimneys are full of silence, the windows do not rattle yet, and the dust still lies down. I already know the storm, and I am troubled as the sea. I leap out, and fall back, and throw myself out, and am absolutely alone in the great storm.

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