The Boy
I wish I might become like one of theseWho, in the night on horses wild astride,With torches flaming out like loosened hairOn to the chase through the great swift wind ride.I wish to stand as on a boat and dareThe sweeping storm, mighty, like flag unrolledIn darkness but with helmet made of goldThat shimmers restlessly. And in a row,Behind me in the dark, ten men that glowWith helmets that are restless, too, like mine,Now old and dull, now clear as glass they shine.One stands by me and blows a blast apaceOn his great flashing trumpet and the soundShrieks through the vast black solitude aroundThrough which, as through a wild mad dream we race.The houses fall behind us on their knees,Before us bend the streets and them we gain,The great squares yieled to us and them we seize--And on our steeds rush like the roar of rain.
Words in this poem
- astride adv.
- With one leg on each side, as a man when on horseback; with the legs stretched wide apart; astraddle. [Pref. a- + stride.]
- apace adv.
- With a quick pace; quick; fast; speedily. [Pref. a- + pace. OE. a pas at a walk, in which a is the article. See Pace.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Boy 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, The Boy, in Poems (1918), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #38594, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/rilke-poems-lemont/the-boy.html, id L27731.
Form and metre
The Boy is 19 lines in a single stanza. It rhymes ABCBCDDEEFFGHHGAIAI. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 88%).
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 ABCBCDDEEFFGHHGAIAI theseA · astrideB · hairC · rideB · dareC · unrolledD · goldD · rowE · glowE · mineF · shineF · apaceG · soundH · aroundH · raceG · kneesA · gainI · seizeA · rainI
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 wish I might become like one of these | 10 | ····˘/···· |
| Who, in the night on horses wild astride, | 10 | ·····/˘·˘/ |
| With torches flaming out like loosened hair | 10 | ·/˘/˘··/˘· |
| On to the chase through the great swift wind ride. | 10 | ·········· |
| I wish to stand as on a boat and dare | 10 | ·········· |
| The sweeping storm, mighty, like flag unrolled | 10 | ·/˘·/˘···· |
| In darkness but with helmet made of gold | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| That shimmers restlessly. And in a row, | 10 | ·/˘/˘˘···· |
| Behind me in the dark, ten men that glow | 10 | ·········· |
| With helmets that are restless, too, like mine, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| Now old and dull, now clear as glass they shine. | 10 | ·········· |
| One stands by me and blows a blast apace | 10 | ········˘/ |
| On his great flashing trumpet and the sound | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| Shrieks through the vast black solitude around | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Through which, as through a wild mad dream we race. | 10 | ·········· |
| The houses fall behind us on their knees, | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Before us bend the streets and them we gain, | 10 | ·········· |
| The great squares yieled to us and them we seize-- | 10 | ·········· |
| And on our steeds rush like the roar of rain. | 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.