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Rilke, Rainer Maria - 17 Fourth Elegy
Identifier
004053
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
Henry Ryland
A description of the experience
Duino Elegies – Rainer Maria Rilke [The Fourth Elegy]
O trees of life,
O when are you wintering?
We are not unified.
We have no instincts like those of migratory birds.
Useless, and late, we force ourselves, suddenly, onto the wind, and fall down to an indifferent lake.
We realise flowering and fading together.
And somewhere lions still roam.
Never knowing, as long as they have their splendour, of any weakness.