Early Apollo
As when at times there breaks through branches bareA morning vibrant with the breath of spring,About this poet-head a splendour rareTransforms it almost to a mortal thing.
There is as yet no shadow in his glance,Too cool his temples for the laurel's glow;But later o'er those marble brows, perchance,A rose-garden with bushes tall will grow,
And single petals one by one will fallO'er the still mouth and break its silent thrall,--The mouth that trembles with a dawning smileAs though a song were rising there the while.
Words in this poem
- vibrant a.
- Vibrating; tremulous; resonant; as, vibrant drums. [L. vibrans, p. pr.: cf. F. vibrant. See Vibrate.]
- splendour n.
- Great brightness; brilliant luster; brilliancy; as, the splendor ot the sun. B. Jonson. [L. fr. splendere to shine: cf. F. splendeur.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Early Apollo is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems, translated by Jessie Lemont, with an introduction by H.T. (New York: Tobias A. Wright, 1918), Project Gutenberg ebook #38594, the Jessie Lemont translation; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Rainer Maria Rilke, Early Apollo, in Poems (1918), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #38594, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/rilke-poems-lemont/early-apollo.html, id L27753.
Form and metre
Early Apollo is 12 lines in 3 stanzas of 4 lines each. The rhyme scheme is ABAB, complete in 2 of its 3 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 92%).
See other poems in iambic pentameter.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 1 ABAB bareA · springB · rareA · thingB
- 2 ABAB glanceA · glowB · perchanceA · growB
- 3 AABB fallA · thrallA · smileB · whileB
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against iambic pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| As when at times there breaks through branches bare | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| A morning vibrant with the breath of spring, | 10 | ·/˘/˘····· |
| About this poet-head a splendour rare | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Transforms it almost to a mortal thing. | 10 | ˘/·/···/˘· |
| There is as yet no shadow in his glance, | 10 | ·····/···· |
| Too cool his temples for the laurel's glow; | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| But later o'er those marble brows, perchance, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘·˘/ |
| A rose-garden with bushes tall will grow, | 10 | ··/˘·/˘··· |
| And single petals one by one will fall | 10 | ·/˘/˘····· |
| O'er the still mouth and break its silent thrall, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| --The mouth that trembles with a dawning smile | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| As though a song were rising there the while. | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.