Pont du Carrousel
Upon the bridge the blind man stands alone,Gray like a mist veiled monument he towersAs though of nameless realms the boundary stoneAbout which circle distant starry hours.
He seems the center around which stars glowWhile all earth's ostentations surge below.
Immovably and silently he standsPlaced where the confused current ebbs and flows;Past fathomless dark depths that he commandsA shallow generation drifting goes....
Words in this poem
- veiled a.
- Covered by, or as by, a veil; hidden.
- nameless a.
- Without a name; not having been given a name; as, a nameless star.
- starry a.
- Abounding with stars; adorned with stars.
- fathomless a.
- Incapable of being fathomed; immeasurable; that can not be sounded.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Pont du Carrousel 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, Pont du Carrousel, in Poems (1918), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #38594, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/rilke-poems-lemont/pont-du-carrousel.html, id L27749.
Form and metre
Pont du Carrousel is 10 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 83%).
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 aloneA · towersB · stoneA · hoursB
- 2 AA glowA · belowA
- 3 ABAB standsA · flowsB · commandsA · goesB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Upon the bridge the blind man stands alone, | 10 | ········˘/ |
| Gray like a mist veiled monument he towers | 11 | ·····/˘˘·/˘ |
| As though of nameless realms the boundary stone | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| About which circle distant starry hours. | 11 | ···/˘/˘/˘/˘ |
| He seems the center around which stars glow | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| While all earth's ostentations surge below. | 10 | ····˘/˘··· |
| Immovably and silently he stands | 10 | ˘/˘˘·/˘˘·· |
| Placed where the confused current ebbs and flows; | 10 | ···˘//˘··· |
| Past fathomless dark depths that he commands | 10 | ·/˘˘····˘/ |
| A shallow generation drifting goes.... | 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.