CHILDHOOD Rainer Maria Rilke

11.               Rainer Maria Rilke                                                                                      Childhood

Write an essay on the following

1.       The poem laments the passage of time. Discuss

2.       Describe the image of childhood that is portrayed in the poem

Rainer Maria Rilke was an Austro-German poet and philosopher. He had an unhappy childhood. His father compelled him to join a military boarding academy to become a military officer and he could not continue his military education and his parents were divorced.

The poem “Childhood” is taken from Rainer Maria Rilke’s book titled “The Book of Pictures”. In this poem Rilke speaks about two themes namely ‘loneliness’ and ‘passage of time’. The narrator had an unhappy childhood days. So he says that he had long childhood afternoons. Those days are completely vanished now because those were sad days. He had an unhappy childhood. His father compelled him to join a military boarding academy to become a military officer and he could not continue his military education and his parents were divorced.

The poem “childhood” laments the speedy passage of time. Although his childhood days were very happy for the narrator, its speedy disappearance makes him sad and bewildered. He is reminded of his lost childhood days when rain comes. The rainfall acts as catalyst and in its presence he remembers his unhappy childhood days, when he met lots and lots of people, reunions and many pictures of the  childhood days filled his heart.

 He feels like a lonely shepherd who is far away grazing his sheep and he has no companions to play with and talk and spend time in merry making. The poet is bewildered at his uncertain future and the speedy passage of time. As he grows up, he is like a long thread into the picture-sequence of life. He has to face life with all its hard realities and complexities. He does not know how to overcome these difficulties and problems of life. This is why he feels bewildered. Now when he turns back, his childhood days are completely disappeared. He does not know how it happened. There is a proverb “Time and tide waits for none”. The speaker laments the speedy passage of time.   Kjt/-20-03-2020