The Song Of The Beggar - Analysis

Introduction and overall impression

This poem presents a quiet, intimate voice of a wandering beggar whose selfhood feels fractured. The tone is resigned, observant and slightly bewildered, with a subtle shift from external description to inward concealment and protection. Its mood moves from public exposure to private withdrawal, ending on a gesture of self-preservation that is both practical and symbolic.

Contextual note

Rainer Maria Rilke, an Austro-Bohemian poet associated with early 20th-century symbolism and existential reflection, often explores solitude, identity, and the poetic vocation; these concerns resonate here as the beggar's small, concrete gestures echo larger questions about voice and worth.

Main themes: identity and voice

The poem foregrounds uncertainty about self: the speaker's voice "seems strange as if / it were alien to me," and he cannot tell "whose voice is crying: mine or someone else's." This dislocation suggests fragmented identity and the difficulty of owning one's speech, a condition that can apply to both literal beggary and artistic expression.

Main themes: dignity and survival

Practical need and dignity intersect in the lines about crying "for a pittance to sustain me" while "The poets cry for more." The contrast links physical survival to spiritual or artistic hunger, implying layered economies of want—basic sustenance versus larger creative or existential demands.

Imagery and symbol: hands, ear, and covered face

Recurrent images—the ear laid in the palm, the face concealed in hands—function as symbols of listening, self-protection, and concealment. Laying the ear in the hand suggests a deliberate tuning to small sounds or a withdrawal from the world, while covering the face "so no one may think I had no place where- / upon to lay my head" transforms shame into a controlled gesture, turning vulnerability into an assertion of having a place.

Ambiguity and interpretive question

The poetical ambiguity—whose voice, whose need, what the poets' greater cry entails—invites reading the beggar as both literal figure and metaphor for the poet or any marginal subject. One might ask: is the concealment a capitulation or a protective, self-affirming act?

Conclusion

Rilke's short scene compresses themes of fractured identity, the economy of need, and the defensive gestures that preserve dignity. Through spare, tactile images and a quietly introspective tone, the poem turns a simple beggar's actions into an emblem of poetic uncertainty and human resilience.