Classic and Contemporary Poetry
BE NOT AFRAID, GOD, by RAINER MARIA RILKE Poem Explanation Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: Be not afraid, god. They say: mine Last Line: And growing sweeter in its solitude. | ||||||||
Be not afraid, God. They say: mine, of all things that permit it patiently. They are like wind, that strokes the skyey boughs and says: my tree. They hardly see how all you touch, your hand with glow endows, so that to grasp the mere extremity of things with such a burning radiance fringed, is to be singed. They will say: mine, as one might say, in speech with peasants, the prince is his friend, the prince being greatand very far away. They call their strange walls: mine, nor comprehend who is their dwelling's lord, whom they gainsay. They still say: mine,possessive, every one, though all things close as they draw near to them, as a dull clown in a paste diadem claims that he owns the lightnings and the sun. And thus they say: my life, my property, my wife, my child, but know with certainty that all things: wife and child and life and lands are alien forms, against which, with blind hands, groping, they knock, where none can penetrate. Yet those who have this surety are the great who long for eyes. The rest, incredulous, will not believe their wandering is thus a walking in the void, to naught attached, that, from their putative possessions snatched, unrecognized by all that they named: ours, they can own wives no more than they own flowers, whose life is alien and apart from man. God, do not fall from your poised, perfect place. Even he who loves you and who knows your face in darkness, when he trembles like a light before your breath,he does not own you quite. And if at night one holds you, closely pressed, so that you are his prayer's denizen: You are the guest who soon goes on again. Who can retain you, God? You are your own, disturbed by no possessor, rash or rude, like the unripened wine, untouched, unknown, and growing sweeter in its solitude. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...AUTUMN DAY by RAINER MARIA RILKE MAIDEN MELANCHOLY by RAINER MARIA RILKE THE LAST SUPPER by RAINER MARIA RILKE TWO POEMS TO HANS THOMA ON HIS SIXIETH BIRTHDAY: 1. MOONLIGHT NIGHT by RAINER MARIA RILKE TWO POEMS TO HANS THOMA ON HIS SIXIETH BIRTHDAY: 2. THE KNIGHT by RAINER MARIA RILKE BLUE HYDRANGEAS by RAINER MARIA RILKE GLIMPSE OF A CHILDHOOD by RAINER MARIA RILKE GROWING BLIND by RAINER MARIA RILKE PEOPLE AT NIGHT by RAINER MARIA RILKE |
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