The Panther

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The Panther (subtitle: In the Jardin des Plantes, Paris ) is a thing poem by Rainer Maria Rilke , which was written between 1902 and 1903 in the epoch of classical modernism , especially symbolism . In three stanzas, a panther caught behind bars is described, as it was displayed in the menagerie in the Paris Jardin des Plantes .

Painter in the Jardin des Plantes, 1902

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THE PANTHER

IN THE JARDIN DES PLANTES, PARIS

His eyes
have grown so tired from the passing of the bars that he can no longer hold anything.
It is as if there were a thousand sticks
and behind a thousand sticks no world.

The smooth gait of supple, strong steps,
which turns in the smallest of circles,
is like a dance of power around a center
in which there is a numb will.

Only sometimes does the pupil's curtain slide
open silently -. Then a picture goes in,
goes through the tense silence -
and ceases to be in the heart.

Background and publication

Rilke wrote the poem in either 1902 or 1903; the point in time cannot be determined with certainty. The prose sketch Der Löwenkäfig , published in 1947 in the book Rilke und die bildende Kunst , and the poem Die Aschanti in the book of pictures are to be mentioned as preliminary stages of the poem .

The subtitle Im Jardin des Plantes, Paris refers to the place of origin of the panther . Exotic animals have also been featured in this botanical garden, including a black panther in a cage. The poem was certainly based on observations made in the Jardin des Plantes; In the panther , Rilke first implemented his desired description of a thing, here an animal. Another source of inspiration was the plaster cast of a panther in Auguste Rodin's studio, which Rilke reported in a letter to his wife in 1902.

Was published The Panther first time in Prague monthly German work in September 1903. Also in 1908 Rilke published new poems contain the Panthers to be the earliest poetry of Rilke. It comes after the poems The Prisoner I and II and before the poem The Gazelle .

shape

The panther is Rilke's most famous thing poem , in which the poet becomes the spokesman for the “dumb things”, following the example of Rodin. The panther is described in three stanzas from its external appearance (gaze, gait, eye) in order to open up its interior.

The withdrawal of freedom is expressed in the first stanza by the slow rhythm. Already here it becomes clear that there is no longer an outside world for the panther - he is detached from it and is in his own cosmos.

The second stanza shows the panther's inner captivity. The panther has lost its natural nature. He is alienated from himself . This is shown by the panther's compulsion to always go in circles and thus to fill his cosmos with steps.

The third stanza confirms the panther's captivity, both outer and inner. But then a moment is described in which the panther's circling steps suddenly stop. An image of the outside world goes straight to his heart through his eyes.

The monotonous uniformity of all three stanzas is striking. The constant iambic meter with its five accents, the cross rhyme (abab, cdcd, efef) and the alternating blunt and ringing cadences symbolize on the one hand the panther's constant wandering and on the other hand the endless chain of cage bars appearing in front of him. Only the last verse, with its four emphases, is an exception. It can be assumed that Rilke thereby tried to express the cessation of the external image in the heart of the panther.

Analysis and interpretation

In Luke Fischer's portrayal, the poem was understood for a long time as the transfer of human feelings to an animal, these were then related to all people or specifically to Rilke's biography: The feeling of captivity should correspond to the feeling of Rilke's loneliness in Paris. Fischer, on the other hand, emphasizes that Rilke understands the animal as a being with inwardness and relative freedom and makes it clear in his analysis that Rilke sees the panther rather in anticipation of Uexküll's zoological and biosemiotic environmental model , in that he sees the panther's perceptions and understands his behavioral impulses as a unit: the panther can no longer act actively due to the restriction of his perceptions, the interplay between environmental stimulus and action is destroyed, and with it the living being itself, which only exists as a whole in this interaction.

Reception in music and film

  • The German composer Karl Marx set Der Panther and other Rilke poems for low voice and piano op. 50/1 to music in 1949 .
  • In the 1990 film Time of Awakening , the panther poem marks a key scene. See also the description of the Leonard L. case in the book template Awakenings (1982) by Oliver Sacks .
  • In Woody Allen's film Another Woman , the poem is cited as a metaphor for the main character's mental life.
  • In 2001 Otto Sander recited the poem for the Rilke project .
  • The panther is quoted in a song of the same name by Chaoze One .
  • The Hamburg skapunk band Rantanplan set Der Panther to music on their 1998 album Köpfer .
  • Udo Lindenberg set the poem to music in the album Der Exzessor in 2000.
  • The poem is part of the text of the song Der Panther (2014) by the band last instance
  • The band AnnenMayKantereit uses the first verse slightly modified (instead of rods is cities sung) in the song Marie (2018).
  • Reinhardt Repkes Club der Toten Dichter on the album Eine Wunders Melodie (Rainer Rilke set new music), Zug Records 2010, audio CD

Trivia

An autograph of the poem, which Rilke had sent to a friend at an unknown time with an accompanying letter, hung as a gift from Horst Wendlandt framed in Thomas Gottschalk's house in Malibu (California) . With this it burned during the 2018 California wildfires .

literature

  • Manfred Back: "Looking at it is such a wonderful thing ...". Rilke's “Panther” after jumping into the thing poem. In: Ingo Wintermeyer (Ed.): Kleine Lauben, Arcadien and Schnabelewopski. Festschrift for Klaus Jeziorkowski. Königshausen and Neumann, Würzburg 1995, ISBN 3-8260-1053-1 , pp. 123-131 ( preview on Google Books).
  • Hans Berendt: Rainer Maria Rilke's New Poems. Attempt at an interpretation. Bonn 1957.
  • Michael Kloepfer : "The Panther" and the lawyer. In: Festschrift for Peter Raue on his 65th birthday on February 4, 2006. Heymanns, Cologne 2006, pp. 139–144. Reprinted in this: Poetry and Law. Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 2008, ISBN 978-3-428-12876-1 , pp. 9-15 ( preview on Google Books).
  • Hans Kügler: Rainer Maria Rilke. The Panther. In: Karl Hotz (Ed.): Poems from seven centuries. Interpretations. Buchner, Bamberg 1987, ISBN 3-7661-4311-5 , p. 211.
  • Kih-Seong Kuh: The animal symbolism in Rainer Maria Rilke. With special consideration of his idea of ​​the "open". Ernst Reuter Society. Berlin 1967.
  • Rätus Luck (Ed.): Rainer Maria Rilke - Auguste Rodin. The correspondence and other documents relating to Rilke's meeting with Rodin. Insel, Frankfurt am Main and Leipzig 2001.
  • Wolfgang Müller: New poems / The new poems other part. In: Manfred Engel , Dorothea Lauterbach (collaborators): Rilke manual. Life - work - effect. License issue. Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, Darmstadt 2003, pp. 296–317, here p. 296.
  • Gert Sautermeister : Rilke in Paris. Cultural history and aesthetics in the “Archaic Torso of Apollo” and in the “Panther”. In: Wolfgang Fink, Ingrid Haag, Katja Wimmer (eds.): France – Germany. Transcultural Perspectives. Festschrift for Karl Heinz Götze. Peter Lang, Frankfurt am Main et al. 2013, ISBN 978-3-653-03129-4 , pp. 235-257.
  • August Stahl with the collaboration of Werner Jost and Reiner Marx: Rilke comment. To the lyric work. Munich 1978.
  • Erich Unbelief: Panthers and Ashanti. Rilke poems from a cultural studies perspective. Lang, Frankfurt am Main et al. 2005, ISBN 3-631-53791-3 .

Web links

Wikisource: The Panther  - Sources and full texts

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Kih-Seong Kuh: The animal symbolism in Rainer Maria Rilke. With special consideration of his idea of ​​the "open". Ernst Reuter Society, Berlin 1967, p. 59; August Stahl with the collaboration of Werner Jost and Reiner Marx: Rilke commentary on the lyric work. Munich 1978, p. 187.
  2. ↑ Alexandra Prokopec: RM Rilke's prose poem “Der Löwenkäfig”: An attempt at a procedural reading. ub.uni-heidelberg pdf
  3. ↑ Kih-Seong Kuh: The animal symbolism in Rainer Maria Rilke. With special consideration of his idea of ​​the "open". Ernst Reuter Society, Berlin 1967, p. 60 f.
  4. ↑ Rätus Luck (ed.): Rainer Maria Rilke - Auguste Rodin. The correspondence and other documents relating to Rilke's meeting with Rodin. Insel, Frankfurt am Main and Leipzig 2001, p. 57 f.
  5. ↑ Kih-Seong Kuh: The animal symbolism in Rainer Maria Rilke. With special consideration of his idea of ​​the "open". Ernst Reuter Society, Berlin 1967, p. 59 f.
  6. ^ Gert Sautermeister: Rilke in Paris. Cultural history and aesthetics in the archaic torso of Apollo and the panther. In: Wolfgang Fink, Ingrid Haag, Katja Wimmer (eds.): France – Germany. Transcultural Perspectives. Festschrift for Karl Heinz Götze. Pp. 235-257, here: p. 236.
  7. ↑ Erika A. Metzger, Michael M. Metzger: A Companion to the Works of Rainer Maria Rilke . Camden House, 2004, ISBN 978-1-57113-302-1 ( google.co.ve [accessed December 15, 2018]).
  8. ↑ Kih-Seong Kuh: The animal symbolism in Rainer Maria Rilke. With special consideration of his idea of ​​the "open". Ernst Reuter Society, Berlin 1967, p. 59.
  9. ↑ Kih-Seong Kuh: The animal symbolism in Rainer Maria Rilke. With special consideration of his idea of ​​the "open". Ernst Reuter Society, Berlin 1967, p. 63 f.
  10. ↑ Kih-Seong Kuh: The animal symbolism in Rainer Maria Rilke. With special consideration of his idea of ​​the "open". Ernst Reuter Society, Berlin 1967, p. 64.
  11. ↑ Hans Berendt: Rainer Maria Rilke's New Poems. Attempt at an interpretation. Bonn 1957, p. 112.
  12. ^ Luke Fischer: The Poet as Phenomenologist: Rilke and the New Poems . Bloomsbury Publishing USA, 2015, ISBN 978-1-62892-544-9 ( google.co.ve [accessed October 21, 2018]).
  13. ↑ youtube.com: Awakenings - The Panther Poem - Rainer Maria Rilke. Retrieved December 10, 2019 .
  14. ↑ Oliver Sacks: Awakenings (1982). in Google Book Search
  15. ↑ youtube.com: Woody Allen - Another Woman (Rilke Scene). Retrieved December 10, 2019 .
  16. ↑ Thomas Gottschalk in an interview about forest fire in Malibu. In: br.de , November 12, 2018.
    Dona Kujacinski: Horst Wendlandt. A biography . Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf 2006, p. 488 books.google .
    Peter von Becker : Rilke's captive panther, a symbol of the present . tagesspiegel.de November 19, 2018