“The Panther” Imagery Essay Sample

Rilke uses an array of imagination techniques in his verse form “The Panther” to assist the reader arrive at a sense of subject. Rilke employs personification in the first line of the verse form to assist arouse an dry tone upon the reader. For illustration. in this line Rilke personifies the fact that the panther’s vision “ can non keep anything else” but the bars he sees right in forepart of him. This adds a self-contradictory component to the verse form because the personification maps as a agency to restrict the jaguar alternatively of giving him “typical” humanlike qualities. In the 2nd stanza. Rilke extends this image of the powerful jaguar being limited and isolated by the bars ; Rilke writes. “As he paces in cramped circles…” ( 5 ) . Rilke so employs a smiling in the following line where he compares the motion of the jaguar to a “ritual dance” . This image brought away broadens this motive of subjection from entirely a jaguar to the life style of people in general. In add-on. this linkage to a “ritual dance. ” although equivocal. could perchance be an allusion to a specific group in history. In the concluding line of the 2nd stanza. Rilke employs self-contradictory linguistic communication and personification when he writes. “in which a mighty will stands paralyzed” ( 8 ) .

This line creates a paradox in the sense that while the jaguar may be full of life and power. he is unable to utilize any of this power because he is paralyzed behind these bars. The usage of personification in this line has a similar consequence to the first line of the verse form because they both evoke an dry tone. In both lines. Rilke paradoxically personifies the fact that the jaguar is paralyzed to repeat the impression that he is wholly subjugated. In the concluding stanza of “The Panther. ” Rilke uses synecdoche when he writes “pupils” but most likely is mentioning to the full oculus of the jaguar of even the jaguar itself. Furthermore. in this line. the usage of personification maps to make a sense of life for the jaguar since the “curtain” of his oculus is being “lifted” .

This usage of personification instantly draws the reader into the concluding line of the verse form since he or she wants to see what will go on when the jaguar views this “image” . However. Rilke uses an anticlimactic component in the stoping of the verse form by saying that the image “plunges into the bosom and is gone” ( 12 ) . Overall. the usage of imagination in “The Panther” helps make a sense of subject for the verse form. The chief subject of the verse form is that worlds. both voluntarily and involuntarily. can be subjugated to life styles that remove their very sense of being and alternatively put them in a province of palsy.