Music
What play you, O Boy? Through the garden it stoleLike wandering steps, like a whisper--then mute;What play you, O Boy? Lo! your gypsying soulIs caught and held fast in the pipes of Pan's flute.
And what conjure you? Imprisoned is the song,It lingers and longs in the reeds where it lies;Your young life is strong, but how much more strongIs the longing that through your music sighs.
Let your flute be still and your soul float throughWaves of sound formless as waves of the sea,For here your song lived and it wisely grewBefore it was forced into melody.
Its wings beat gently, its note no more calls,Its flight has been spent by you, dreaming Boy!Now it no longer steals over my walls--But in my garden I'd woo it to joy.
Words in this poem
- stole n.
- A long, loose garment reaching to the feet. [AS. stole, L. stola, Gr. stall. See Stall.]
- conjure v. t.
- To call on or summon by a sacred name or in solemn manner; to implore earnestly; to adjure. [F. conjurer, fr. L. conjurare to swear together, to conspire; con- + jurare to swear. See Jury.]
- formless a.
- Shapeless; without a determinate form; wanting regularity of shape.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Music 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, Music, in Poems (1918), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #38594, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/rilke-poems-lemont/music.html, id L27745.
Form and metre
Music is 16 lines in 4 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABAB. This poem did not settle on a metre of its own; the book it comes from is in iambic pentameter.
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 stoleA · muteB · soulA · fluteB
- 2 ABAB songA · liesB · strongA · sighsB
- 3 ABAB throughA · seaB · grewA · melodyB
- 4 ABAB callsA · boyB · wallsA · joyB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| What play you, O Boy? Through the garden it stole | 11 | ·······/˘·· |
| Like wandering steps, like a whisper--then mute; | 10 | ·/˘···/˘·· |
| What play you, O Boy? Lo! your gypsying soul | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Is caught and held fast in the pipes of Pan's flute. | 11 | ··········· |
| And what conjure you? Imprisoned is the song, | 11 | ··/˘·˘/˘··· |
| It lingers and longs in the reeds where it lies; | 11 | ·/˘········ |
| Your young life is strong, but how much more strong | 10 | ·········· |
| Is the longing that through your music sighs. | 10 | ··/˘···/˘· |
| Let your flute be still and your soul float through | 10 | ·········· |
| Waves of sound formless as waves of the sea, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| For here your song lived and it wisely grew | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Before it was forced into melody. | 10 | ·······/˘˘ |
| Its wings beat gently, its note no more calls, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Its flight has been spent by you, dreaming Boy! | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Now it no longer steals over my walls-- | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| But in my garden I'd woo it to joy. | 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.