Lament
Oh! All things are long passed away and far.A light is shining but the distant starFrom which it still comes to me has been deadA thousand years ... In the dim phantom boatThat glided past some ghastly thing was said.A clock just struck within some house remote.Which house?--I long to still my beating heart.Beneath the sky's vast dome I long to pray ...Of all the stars there must be far awayA single star which still exists apart.And I believe that I should know the oneWhich has alone endured and which aloneLike a white City that all space commandsAt the ray's end in the high heaven stands.
About this text
Lament 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, Lament, in Poems (1918), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #38594, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/rilke-poems-lemont/lament.html, id L27751.
Form and metre
Lament is 14 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 89%).
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 AABCBCDEED--FF farA · starA · deadB · boatC · saidB · remoteC · heartD · prayE · awayE · apartD · one · alone · commandsF · standsF
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Oh! All things are long passed away and far. | 10 | ······˘/·· |
| A light is shining but the distant star | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| From which it still comes to me has been dead | 10 | ·········· |
| A thousand years ... In the dim phantom boat | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| That glided past some ghastly thing was said. | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| A clock just struck within some house remote. | 10 | ········˘/ |
| Which house?--I long to still my beating heart. | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Beneath the sky's vast dome I long to pray ... | 10 | ·········· |
| Of all the stars there must be far away | 10 | ········˘/ |
| A single star which still exists apart. | 10 | ·/˘···˘/˘/ |
| And I believe that I should know the one | 10 | ··˘/······ |
| Which has alone endured and which alone | 10 | ··˘/˘/··˘/ |
| Like a white City that all space commands | 10 | ···/˘···˘/ |
| At the ray's end in the high heaven stands. | 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.