Sense Of Something Coming - Analysis

Introduction and overall impression

This short Rainer Maria Rilke poem conveys a quiet, tense expectancy that becomes inward turbulence. The tone moves from stillness and observation to restless, almost violent interior motion. A shift occurs from the calm exterior world to an intense, solitary inner storm.

Contextual note

Rilke, an Austro-Bohemian poet often concerned with existential and spiritual questions, frequently explores the individual's relation to inner forces and the external world; this poem fits that preoccupation by dramatizing an inner movement against outward silence.

Theme: Anticipation and change

The poem centers on a mounting sense of something imminent: the speaker is "like a flag in the center of open space" and "sense[s] ahead the wind which is coming." Everyday stillness—"the doors still close softly," "the dust still lies down"—contrasts with the foreknowledge of change. Imagery of waiting emphasizes the tension between the present calm and impending motion.

Theme: Isolation and interior upheaval

As the expected wind arrives internally, the speaker experiences solitude: actions are solitary—"I leap out, and fall back," "am absolutely alone / in the great storm." The repetition of first-person verbs and the explicit declaration of aloneness turn the anticipated event into a private, unshareable ordeal.

Symbolism of flag, wind, and domestic stillness

The flag suggests exposure and receptivity, a body or self extended into an open field. The wind and storm function as forces of transformation or revelation—powerful, uncontrollable, inwardly felt. The domestic images (doors, chimneys, windows, dust) symbolize ordinary life and its current inertia; their silence heightens the speaker's sensitivity and isolates the impending change as personal rather than communal.

Final reading

Rilke presents an intimate drama of preparedness and internal storm: the world remains undisturbed while the self must live through a coming force alone. The poem suggests that certain experiences are solitary thresholds—moments when inner winds compel movement despite an unchanged outer world.