"As he paces in cramped circles, over and over,
the movement of his powerful soft strides
is like a ritual dance around a center
in which a mighty will stands paralyzed."
- Rainer Maria Rilke
This poem confused me, as is the norm for me with a lot of literature at first. At first glance I thought this poem was about a panther in captivity. After discussing with my small group, we all decided that the poem must have meant a little something more than just simply a panther. Our best analysis ended up being that Rilke was telling the story of a prisoner on death row. It makes sense if you think about it. The "panther" starts out behind bars, shut out from the world. The powerful yet vulnerable creature paces in circles trying to accept its fate. After calmly awaiting his/her fate, the prisoner's muscles go tense and he/she dies. Honestly, that makes a lot of sense in my mind because I was a part of the thought process that came up with the group explanation, but I don't know if it will make sense to other people. Does it?
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