The Knight
The Knight rides forth in coat of mailInto the roar of the world.And here is Life: the vines in the valeAnd friend and foe, and the feast in the hall,And May and the maid, and the glen and the grail;God's flags afloat on every wallIn a thousand streets unfurled.
Beneath the armour of the KnightBehind the chain's black linksDeath crouches and thinks and thinks:"When will the sword's blade sharp and brightForth from the scabbard springAnd cut the network of the cloakEnmeshing me ring on ring--When will the foe's delivering strokeSet me freeTo danceAnd sing?"
Words in this poem
- vale n.
- A tract of low ground, or of land between hills; a valley. [OE. val, F. val, L. vallis; perhaps akin to Gr. Avalanche, Vail to lower, Valley.]
- afloat adv.
- Borne on the water; floating; on board ship. [Pref. a- + float.]
- armour n.
- Defensive arms for the body; any clothing or covering worn to protect one's person in battle. [OE. armure, fr. F. armure, OF. armeure, fr. L. armatura. See Armature.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Knight 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 Knight, in Poems (1918), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #38594, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/rilke-poems-lemont/the-knight.html, id L27730.
Form and metre
The Knight is 18 lines in 2 stanzas. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 82%).
See other poems in iambic tetrameter.
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 ABACACB mailA · worldB · valeA · hallC · grailA · wallC · unfurledB
- 2 ABBACDCD--C knightA · linksB · thinksB · brightA · springC · cloakD · ringC · strokeD · free · dance · singC
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 tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| The Knight rides forth in coat of mail | 8 | ········ |
| Into the roar of the world. | 7 | ······· |
| And here is Life: the vines in the vale | 9 | ········· |
| And friend and foe, and the feast in the hall, | 10 | ·········· |
| And May and the maid, and the glen and the grail; | 11 | ··········· |
| God's flags afloat on every wall | 9 | ··˘/·/˘˘· |
| In a thousand streets unfurled. | 7 | ··/˘·˘/ |
| Beneath the armour of the Knight | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Behind the chain's black links | 6 | ······ |
| Death crouches and thinks and thinks: | 7 | ·/˘···· |
| "When will the sword's blade sharp and bright | 8 | ········ |
| Forth from the scabbard spring | 6 | ···/˘· |
| And cut the network of the cloak | 8 | ···/···· |
| Enmeshing me ring on ring-- | 7 | ˘/˘···· |
| When will the foe's delivering stroke | 9 | ····˘/˘˘· |
| Set me free | 3 | ··· |
| To dance | 2 | ·· |
| And sing?" | 2 | ·· |
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.