Offering
My body glows in every vein and bloomsTo fullest flower since I first knew thee,My walk unconscious pride and power assumes;Who art thou then--thou who awaitest me?
When from the past I draw myself the whileI lose old traits as leaves of autumn fall;I only know the radiance of thy smile,Like the soft gleam of stars, transforming all.
Through childhood's years I wandered unawareOf shimmering visions my thoughts now arrestsTo offer thee, as on an altar fairThat's lighted by the bright flame of thy hairAnd wreathéd by the blossoms of thy breasts.
Words in this poem
- unaware a.
- Not aware; not noticing; giving no heed; thoughtless; inattentive.
- shimmering n.
- A gleam or glimmering.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Offering 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, Offering, in Poems (1918), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #38594, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/rilke-poems-lemont/offering.html, id L27759.
Form and metre
Offering is 13 lines in 3 stanzas. The rhyme scheme is ABAB, complete in 2 of its 3 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 87%).
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 bloomsA · theeB · assumesA · meB
- 2 ABAB whileA · fallB · smileA · allB
- 3 ABAAB unawareA · arrestsB · fairA · hairA · breastsB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| My body glows in every vein and blooms | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| To fullest flower since I first knew thee, | 10 | ·/˘/˘····· |
| My walk unconscious pride and power assumes; | 10 | ···/˘··/˘/ |
| Who art thou then--thou who awaitest me? | 10 | ······˘/˘· |
| When from the past I draw myself the while | 10 | ·······/·· |
| I lose old traits as leaves of autumn fall; | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| I only know the radiance of thy smile, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| Like the soft gleam of stars, transforming all. | 10 | ······˘/˘· |
| Through childhood's years I wandered unaware | 10 | ·/···/˘·˘/ |
| Of shimmering visions my thoughts now arrests | 10 | ·/˘/˘···˘/ |
| To offer thee, as on an altar fair | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| That's lighted by the bright flame of thy hair | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| And wreathéd by the blossoms of thy breasts. | 9 | ····/˘··· |
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.