The Panther (poem)
The Panther | |
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In Jardin des Plantes, Paris | |
by Rainer Maria Rilke | |
![]() Artists at the Jardin des Plantes. | |
Original title | Der Panther |
Translator | Stanley Appelbaum C. F. MacIntyre J. B. Leishman Walter Arndt Robert Bly Jessie Lamont |
Language | German |
Form | Narrative |
Publication date | () |
Media type | Paperback |
Full text | |
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"The Panther" (subtitled: "In Jardin des Plantes, Paris"; German: Der Panther: Im Jardin des Plantes, Paris) is a poem by Rainer Maria Rilke written between 1902 and 1903.[1] It describes a captured panther behind bars, as it was exhibited in the Ménagerie of the Jardin des Plantes in Paris. It is one of Rilke's most famous poems and has been translated into English many times, including by many distinguished translators of Rilke, like Stephen Mitchell, C. F. MacIntyre, J. B. Leishman and Walter Arndt, Jessie Lamont and poets like Robert Bly. It is used in the film Awakenings (1990) by the protagonist Leonard Lowe as a metaphor for his physical disability.
Content
The poem consists of three stanzas (strophes), each containing four verses with alternating feminine and masculine cadence:
German Sein Blick ist vom Vorübergehn der Stäbe | English His gaze against the sweeping of the bars | English His vision, from the constantly passing bars,
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References
- ^ Gedichtefreund.de
Further reading
- Hans Kügler: Rainer Maria Rilke. Der Panther. In: Karl Hotz (Hrsg.): Gedichte aus sieben Jahrhunderten. Interpretationen. Buchner, Bamberg 1987, ISBN 3-7661-4311-5, p. 211 German)
- Manfred Back: „Das Anschauen ist eine so wunderbare Sache …“. Rilkes Panther nach dem Sprung ins Dinggedicht. In: Ingo Wintermeyer (Hrsg.): Kleine Lauben, Arcadien und Schnabelewopski. Festschrift für Klaus Jeziorkowski. Königshausen und Neumann, Würzburg 1995, ISBN 3-8260-1053-1, pp. 123–131 (excerpt at Google books, German).
- Erich Unglaub: Panther und Aschanti. Rilke-Gedichte in kulturwissenschaftlicher Sicht. Lang, Frankfurt am Main u. a. 2005, ISBN 3-631-53791-3 (German)
- Lawrence Ryan: Neue Gedichte - New Poems. In: Erika Alma Metzger (ed.), Michael M. Metzger (ed.): A Companion to the Works of Rainer Maria Rilke. Boydell & Brewer, 2001, ISBN 9781571130525, pp. 128-153
External links
The Panther public domain audiobook at LibriVox
- v
- t
- e
- "The Panther" (1902)
- "Archaic Torso of Apollo" (1908)
- The Love and Death of Cornet Christopher Rilke (1912)
- The Book of Images (1902)
- The Book of Hours (1905)
- New Poems (1907–1908)
- Duino Elegies (1923)
- Sonnets to Orpheus (1923)
- Notes on the Melody of Things (1898)
- The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge (1910)
- Letters to a Young Poet (1929)
- List of Duino Elegies translations
- Rainer Maria Rilke Foundation