Extinguish My Eyes
Extinguish my eyes, I still can see you,Close my ears, I can hear your footsteps fall,And without feet I still can follow you,And without voice I still can to you call.Break off my arms, and I can embrace you,Enfold you with my heart as with a hand.Hold my heart, my brain will take fire of youAs flax ignites from a lit fire-brand--And flame will sweep in a swift rushing floodThrough all the singing currents of my blood.
Words in this poem
- enfold v. t.
- To infold. See Infold.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Extinguish My Eyes 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, Extinguish My Eyes, in Poems (1918), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #38594, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/rilke-poems-lemont/extinguish-my-eyes.html, id L27770.
Form and metre
Extinguish My Eyes is 10 lines in a single stanza. It rhymes ABABACACDD. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 83%).
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 ABABACACDD youA · fallB · youA · callB · youA · handC · youA · brandC · floodD · bloodD
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Extinguish my eyes, I still can see you, | 10 | ˘/˘······· |
| Close my ears, I can hear your footsteps fall, | 10 | ·······/·· |
| And without feet I still can follow you, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| And without voice I still can to you call. | 10 | ·········· |
| Break off my arms, and I can embrace you, | 10 | ·······˘/· |
| Enfold you with my heart as with a hand. | 10 | ˘/········ |
| Hold my heart, my brain will take fire of you | 10 | ·······/·· |
| As flax ignites from a lit fire-brand-- | 10 | ··˘/···/˘· |
| And flame will sweep in a swift rushing flood | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Through all the singing currents of my blood. | 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.