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Classic and Contemporary Poetry
SONNETS TO ORPHEUS: FIRST PART, 1, by RAINER MARIA RILKE Poem Explanation Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: A tree ascended there. Oh pure transcendence Last Line: You built a temple deep inside their hearing Subject(s): Imagination; Mythology - Classical; Orpheus; Vision | |||
A tree ascended there. Oh pure transcendence! Oh Orpheus sings! Oh tall tree in the ear! And all things hushed. Yet even in that silence a new beginning, beckoning, change appeared. Creatures of stillness crowded from the bright unbound forest, out of their lairs and nests; and it was not from any dullness, not from fear, that they were so quiet in themselves, but from just listening. Bellow, roar, shriek seemed small inside their hearts. And where there had been at most a makeshift hut to receive the music, a shelter nailed up out of their darkest longing, with an entryway that shuddered in the wind- you built a temple deep inside their hearing. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE MERCY SEAT by NORMAN DUBIE TOO BRIGHT TO SEE by LINDA GREGG NORMAL LIGHT by ALICIA SUSKIN OSTRIKER LANDSCAPES (FOR CLEMENT R. WOOD) by LOUIS UNTERMEYER THE VISION TEST by MONA VAN DUYN FREED FROM ANOTHER CONTEXT by ELEANOR WILNER |
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