Maidens at Confirmation

Rainer Maria Rilke (1875–1926), translated by Jessie Lemont · 1918

iambic pentameter · ABBA · 34 lines · from Poems

The white veiled maids to confirmation goThrough deep green garden paths they slowly wind;Their childhood they are leaving now behind:The future will be different, they know.

Oh! Will it come? They wait--It must come soon!The next long hour slowly strikes at last,The whole house stirs again, the feast is past,And sadly passes by the afternoon ...

Like resurrection were the garments whiteThe wreathed procession walked through trees arched wideInto the church, as cool as silk inside,With long aisles of tall candles flaming bright:The lights all shone like jewels rich and rareTo solemn eyes that watched them gleam and flare.

Then through the silence the great song rose highUp to the vaulted dome like clouds it soared,Then luminously, gently down it poured--Over white veils like rain it seemed to die.

The wind through the white garments softly stirredAnd they grew vari-coloured in each foldAnd each fold hidden blossoms seemed to holdAnd flowers and stars and fluting notes of bird,And dim, quaint figures shimmering like goldSeemed to come forth from distant myths of old.

Outside the day was one of green and blue,With touches of a luminous glowing red,Across the quiet pond the small waves sped.Beyond the city, gardens hidden from viewSent odors of sweet blossoms on the breezeAnd singing sounded through the far off trees.

It was as though garlands crowned everythingAnd all things were touched softly by the sun;And many windows opened one by oneAnd the light trembled on them glistening.

Words in this poem

veiled a.: Covered by, or as by, a veil; hidden.
childhood n.: The state of being a child; the time in which persons are children; the condition or time from infancy to puberty. [AS. cildhad; cild child + -had. See Child, and hood.]
sadly adv.: Wearily; heavily; firmly.
afternoon n.: The part of the day which follows noon, between noon and evening.
resurrection n.: A rising again; the resumption of vigor. [F. résurrection, L. resurrectio, fr. resurgere, resurrectum, to rise again; pref. re- re- + surgere to rise. See Source.]
flare v. i.: To burn with an unsteady or waving flame; as, the candle flares. [Cf. Norw. flara to blaze, flame, adorn with tinsel, dial. Sw. flasa upp, and E. flash, or flacker.]
quaint a.: Prudent; wise; hence, crafty; artful; wily. [OE. queint, queynte, coint, prudent, wise, cunning, pretty, odd, OF. cointe cultivated, amiable, agreeable, neat, fr. L. cognitus known, p. p. of cognoscere to ]
shimmering n.: A gleam or glimmering.

Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.

About this text

Maidens at Confirmation 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, Maidens at Confirmation, in Poems (1918), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #38594, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/rilke-poems-lemont/maidens-at-confirmation.html, id L27747.

Form and metre

Maidens at Confirmation is 34 lines in 7 stanzas. The rhyme scheme is ABBA, complete in 4 of its 7 stanzas. 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 ABBA go^A · wind^B · behind^B · know^A
2 ABBA soon^A · last^B · past^B · afternoon^A
3 ABBACC white^A · wide^B · inside^B · bright^A · rare^C · flare^C
4 ABBA high^A · soared^B · poured^B · die^A
5 ABBABB stirred^A · fold^B · hold^B · bird^A · gold^B · old^B
6 ABBACC blue^A · red^B · sped^B · view^A · breeze^C · trees^C
7 ABBA everything^A · sun^B · one^B · glistening^A

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
The white veiled maids to confirmation go	10	······˘/˘·
Through deep green garden paths they slowly wind;	10	···/˘··/˘·
Their childhood they are leaving now behind:	10	·/···/˘···
The future will be different, they know.	10	·/˘··/˘˘··
Oh! Will it come? They wait--It must come soon!	10	··········
The next long hour slowly strikes at last,	10	···/˘/˘···
The whole house stirs again, the feast is past,	10	····˘/····
And sadly passes by the afternoon ...	10	·/˘/˘···˘/
Like resurrection were the garments white	10	··˘/˘··/˘·
The wreathed procession walked through trees arched wide	10	··˘/˘·····
Into the church, as cool as silk inside,	10	········˘/
With long aisles of tall candles flaming bright:	10	·····/˘/˘·
The lights all shone like jewels rich and rare	10	·····/˘···
To solemn eyes that watched them gleam and flare.	10	·/˘·······
Then through the silence the great song rose high	10	···/˘·····
Up to the vaulted dome like clouds it soared,	10	···/˘·····
Then luminously, gently down it poured--	10	·····/˘···
Over white veils like rain it seemed to die.	10	··········
The wind through the white garments softly stirred	10	·····/˘/˘·
And they grew vari-coloured in each fold	10	···/˘/˘···
And each fold hidden blossoms seemed to hold	10	···/˘/˘···
And flowers and stars and fluting notes of bird,	10	·/···/˘···
And dim, quaint figures shimmering like gold	10	···/˘/˘˘··
Seemed to come forth from distant myths of old.	10	·····/˘···
Outside the day was one of green and blue,	10	//········
With touches of a luminous glowing red,	10	·/˘··/˘/˘·
Across the quiet pond the small waves sped.	10	˘/·/˘·····
Beyond the city, gardens hidden from view	11	···/˘/˘/˘··
Sent odors of sweet blossoms on the breeze	10	·/˘··/˘···
And singing sounded through the far off trees.	10	·/˘/˘·····
It was as though garlands crowned everything	10	····/˘·/˘·
And all things were touched softly by the sun;	10	·····/˘···
And many windows opened one by one	10	·/˘/˘/˘···
And the light trembled on them glistening.	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.

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