In Cassocks Clad
In cassocks clad I have had many brothersIn southern cloisters where the laurel grows,They paint Madonnas like fair human mothersAnd I dream of young Titians and of othersIn which the God with shining radiance glows.
But though my vigil constantly I keepMy God is dark--like woven texture flowing,A hundred drinking roots, all intertwined;I only know that from His warmth I'm growing.More I know not: my roots lie hidden deepMy branches only are swayed by the wind.
Words in this poem
- clad v.
- To clothe. Holland.
- vigil n.
- Abstinence from sleep, whether at a time when sleep is customary or not; the act of keeping awake, or the state of being awake, or the state of being awake; sleeplessness; wakefulness; watch. [OE. vigile, L. vigilia, from vigil awake, watchful, probably akin to E. wake: cf. F. vigile. See Wake, v. i., and cf. Reveille, Surveillance, Vedette, Vegetable]
- swayed a.
- Bent down, and hollow in the back; sway-backed; -- said of a horse.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
In Cassocks Clad 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, In Cassocks Clad, in Poems (1918), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #38594, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/rilke-poems-lemont/in-cassocks-clad.html, id L27764.
Form and metre
In Cassocks Clad is 11 lines in 2 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 88%).
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 ABAAB brothersA · growsB · mothersA · othersA · glowsB
- 2 ABCBAC keepA · flowingB · intertwinedC · growingB · deepA · windC
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 |
|---|---|---|
| In cassocks clad I have had many brothers | 11 | ·/˘····/˘/˘ |
| In southern cloisters where the laurel grows, | 10 | ·/˘/˘··/˘· |
| They paint Madonnas like fair human mothers | 11 | ··˘/˘··/˘/˘ |
| And I dream of young Titians and of others | 11 | ·····/˘··/˘ |
| In which the God with shining radiance glows. | 10 | ·····/˘/˘· |
| But though my vigil constantly I keep | 10 | ···/˘/˘˘·· |
| My God is dark--like woven texture flowing, | 11 | ·····/˘/˘/˘ |
| A hundred drinking roots, all intertwined; | 10 | ·/˘/˘··˘˘/ |
| I only know that from His warmth I'm growing. | 11 | ·/˘······/˘ |
| More I know not: my roots lie hidden deep | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| My branches only are swayed by the wind. | 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.