Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE PANTHER, by RAINER MARIA RILKE


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THE PANTHER, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: His vision, from the constantly passing bars


His vision, from the constantly passing bars,
has grown so weary that it cannot hold anything else.
It seems to him there are a thousand bars;
and behind the bars, no world.
As he paces in cramped circles, over and over,
the movement of his powerful soft strides
is like a ritual dance around a center
in which a mighty will stands paralyzed.
Only at times, the curtain of the pupils lifts, quietly--.
An image enters in,
rushes down through the tensed, arrested muscles,
plunges into the heart and is gone.




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