Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE YOUTH DREAMS, by RAINER MARIA RILKE


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE YOUTH DREAMS, by             Poem Explanation     Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: Oh, I should love to be like one of those
Last Line: And still our horses rustle like the rain.
Subject(s): Dreams; Nightmares


OH, I should love to be like one of those
Who thro' the night on tameless horses ride,
With torches like disheveled tresses wide
Which the great wind of gallop streaming blows.
And I would stand as on a shallop's prow,
Slender and tall and like a banner rolled.
Dark but for helmeting of ruddy gold
That glints and gleams. Behind me in a row
Ten men who from the equal darkness glow
With helmets of the changeful gold designed,
Now clear as glass, now dark and old and blind.
And one by me blows me a vision of space
Upon a trumpet glittering that cries,
Or makes a solitary blackness rise
Thro' which as in a rapid dream we race:
The houses slant behind us to their knees,
The crooked streets to meet us bend and strain,
The squares flee from us: but we grapple these,
And still our horses rustle like the rain.





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