Solitude
Solitude - context Summary
Composed in 1899
Written and published in 1899 as part of Das Stunden-Buch, Rilke’s "Solitude" crystallizes a recurring theme in his work: solitude as a spiritual state. The poem likens solitude to a rising and falling rain that descends at dawn, a figure shaped by Rilke’s inner journey and his travels to Russia. It captures a mood of quiet alienation and inward reflection rather than an external event.
Read Complete AnalysesSolitude is like a rain That from the sea at dusk begins to rise; It floats remote across the far-off plain Upward into its dwelling-place, the skies, Then o'er the town it slowly sinks again. Like rain it softly falls at that dim hour When ghostly lanes turn toward the shadowy morn; When bodies weighed with satiate passion's power Sad, disappointed from each other turn; When men with quiet hatred burning deep Together in a common bed must sleep— Through the gray, phantom shadows of the dawn Lo! Solitude floats down the river wan ...
Translated by Jessie Lamont
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