The Unicorn by Rainer Maria Rilke: poem analysis

This is an analysis of the poem The Unicorn that begins with:

The saintly hermit, midway through his prayers
stopped suddenly, and raised his eyes to witness...

Elements of the verse: questions and answers

The information we provided is prepared by means of a special computer program. Use the criteria sheet to understand greatest poems or improve your poetry analysis essay.

  • Rhyme scheme: aXbca Xacdcc dXXaXcb
  • Stanza lengths (in strings): 5,6,7,
  • Closest metre: iambic pentameter
  • Сlosest rhyme: enclosed rhyme
  • Сlosest stanza type: tercets
  • Guessed form: blank verse
  • Metre: 0101011101 11001101010 010100110111 01010101011 10110010001 01110001100 10101010011 11011101011 110101010101 00010010101 1001110101 01010101111 1010010101 101101010010 110101011101 01110101010 01010101110 1101000101010
  • Amount of stanzas: 3
  • Average number of symbols per stanza: 282
  • Average number of words per stanza: 46
  • Amount of lines: 18
  • Average number of symbols per line: 46 (strings are more long than medium ones)
  • Average number of words per line: 8

  • Mood of the speaker:

    The punctuation marks are various. Neither mark predominates.

  • The author used lexical repetitions to emphasize a significant image; his, of are repeated.

    The poet used anaphora at the beginnings of some neighboring lines. The same word the is repeated.

    The author used the same word the at the beginnings of some neighboring stanzas. The figure of speech is a kind of anaphora.

If you write a school or university poetry essay, you should Include in your explanation of the poem:

  • summary of The Unicorn;
  • central theme;
  • idea of the verse;
  • history of its creation;
  • critical appreciation.

Good luck in your poetry interpretation practice!

More information about poems by Rainer Maria Rilke

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