Rilke is a famous German poet who has modernized poetry. His poems are intensely subjective and poetically lyrical. He has written on many topics such as religion, elegies, nature and love.
‘I find you Lord in all things and in everything, in a small seed and you sleep in the small’. This is a beautiful metaphorical comparison. God is placed inside a small seed. We can also look at this metaphor from the Bible. For example: if you have faith as a mustard seed’. God sleeps in the seed and makes it grow and flourish.
“A wonderful game that plays the power groping in the roots and growing thick in the trunks and in the tops of the trees as if rising from the dead.” Here the power is compared to the resurrection of the dead. It may be that Rilke intrudes on religion. It is true in Christianity that the dead will rise and be resurrected. The roots and trunks of the trees are considered raised and resurrected.
A simile used by Rilke is: ‘a star that shines like a white city’. This is a beautiful comparison, so moving with richness and depth of thought.
‘Lord it’s time; the great summer has passed, now you superimpose the sundials with your shadows’. Here Rilke refers to the fact that God is present with the temporality of the spaces of time.
‘The sky puts on its dark blue coat’. This is a beautiful metaphor that suggests the end of the afternoon and the arrival of night.
‘Every morning when the sunlight enters your house, you welcome it like a friend.’ Rilke is using personification. Sunlight is represented in anthropomorphic terms.
‘Blood is the hardest, hard as stone.’ The metaphor shows that humans are cold-blooded and have no human feelings.
‘My soul has no garden, no sun in it hangs on my twisted skeleton and terrified flaps its wings.’ Here Rilke uses multiple metaphors to bring out the anguish of the body. There is no garden of beauty in the soul; there is no shining sun on Rilke’s body. Through this metaphor, Rilke brings out the pathos of the human body.
My hands aren’t much use; They are like toads after the rain. All your features pass in simile’. Here Rilke is talking about a dwarf. The simile like frogs in the rain is disconcerting and I think it is incongruous.
‘However, entirely images like the ark of God.’ The ark of God refers to the tabernacle of God. It may be that it is a simile alluding to the purity of the body.
‘Whirling faster and faster, she blows her dress into passionate flames from which, like frightened rat-snakes, long bare arms uncoil.’ Here Rilke refers to a dancer. The comparison is interesting. Her dress is like flames and her arms are like rat-snakes.
‘His senses felt as if they were split in two; the sight of him would breed before him like a dog.’ This simile is crazy. Does Rilke mean that he will be able to see quickly?
‘She had reached a new virginity and was untouchable; her sex had closed like a young flower at dusk’. The comparison, a simile between the girl and the flower is interesting.
“We cannot recognize his legendary head with eyes like ripe fruit, and yet his torso is still awash with brilliance from within like a lamp.” Here Rilke is making similes about the god Apollo. His eyes are bright and dazzling. Apollo’s torso is compared to a shining lamp.
‘A screech, envy shakes the parrot’s cage.’ Here Rilke is using the figure of speech called personification.
The gravity of some ancient discontent has set you back in measurable time; this often brings me out of a dreamless sleep at night, like a thief climbing through my window. Here the comparison made between sleeping being a thief is confusing. The simile is not without sensitivity.
‘You, beloved, who are all the gardens, that I have ever contemplated’. This metaphor is similar to the romantic verses of King Solomon, the Song of Songs.
