A Sumation Of Rainer Maria Rilke'S The Panther

A Summation of Rainer Maria Rilke's

"The Panther"

In Rilke's "the Panther", Rilke writes about a panther who is being kept in a cage, possibly in a zoo. The panther is described from the poem as growing old, being desensitized to the world around him from the lack of stimulation and from this he paces around inside of his confines all day long. The environment for the creature has grown stale and tasteless; he no longer is interested with anything that may be happening outside of the cage where he can see and especially nothing inside it either. He is basically board; but Rilke makes it more than that, it seems his soul is being starved. It seems that he has tried and tried to entertain himself, searching for anything new and useful outside but nothing sticks with him anymore and now given up hope of anything else, anything he may have once known. So he paces, "over and over," it seems to him hopeless and even futile, but that is all he can think to do there. It is all he knows how to do. All of his natural power stealth and cunning are wasted locked up in a cage. I think that that is the purpose of the poem. It is to show the cruelty of imprisoning animals in cages of iron for our own entertainment. It might have been a different story if he was properly entertained, but a cage is not the place for an animal such as Rilke's Panther.

This poem uses a number of techniques, including imagery personification and similes, to convey the idea and the experience of confinement and uselessness of the character simply and easily. Rilke uses breaks in key places to achieve the full effect of her words. In this poem you can the author makes you feel the sadness and confinement the Panther feels. The tone of the poem came across as dark and personal, making this poem seem even more meaningful.