Question

Have students turn to a partner or form small groups to engage in a collaborative discussion about the way Rilke uses imagery and other poetic devices in the poem.

Answer 1

This is the poem^^

This clumsy living that moves lumbering

as if in ropes through what is not done,

reminds us of the awkward way the swan walks.

And to die, which is the letting go

of the ground we stand on and cling to every day,

is like the swan, when he nervously lets himself down

into the water, which receives him gaily

and which flows joyfully under

and after him, wave after wave,

while the swan, unmoving and marvelously calm,

is pleased to be carried, each moment more fully grown,

more like a king, further and further on.

Answer 2

When Rilke uses Imagery, Rilke describes the dancer with strong words. For example, confidence, exultant, and powerful. Rilke uses personification by saying the fire is too tight around her body. Since he says she is flinging it out, it portrays her as confident and brave. When Rilke uses alliteration the author uses the words, faster, fans, flames, and furnace. Since the author uses the vocabulary of passionate and furnace it describes the subject as confident and determined.