Presaging
I am like a flag unfurled in space,I scent the oncoming winds and must bend with them,While the things beneath are not yet stirring,While doors close gently and there is silence in the chimneysAnd the windows do not yet tremble and the dust is still heavy--Then I feel the storm and am vibrant like the seaAnd expand and withdraw into myselfAnd thrust myself forth and am alone in the great storm.
Words in this poem
- vibrant a.
- Vibrating; tremulous; resonant; as, vibrant drums. [L. vibrans, p. pr.: cf. F. vibrant. See Vibrate.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Presaging 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, Presaging, in Poems (1918), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #38594, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/rilke-poems-lemont/presaging.html, id L27724.
Form and metre
Presaging is 8 lines in a single stanza. 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.
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 |
|---|---|---|
| I am like a flag unfurled in space, | 9 | ·····˘/·· |
| I scent the oncoming winds and must bend with them, | 12 | ···/·˘······ |
| While the things beneath are not yet stirring, | 10 | ········/˘ |
| While doors close gently and there is silence in the chimneys | 14 | ···/˘···/˘··/˘ |
| And the windows do not yet tremble and the dust is still heavy-- | 16 | ··/˘···/˘·····/˘ |
| Then I feel the storm and am vibrant like the sea | 12 | ·······/˘··· |
| And expand and withdraw into myself | 10 | ·˘/·˘/···/ |
| And thrust myself forth and am alone in the great storm. | 13 | ···/···˘/···· |
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.