Explore "Solitude" by Rainer Maria Rilke on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
Solitude is like a rain / That from the sea at dusk begins to rise; / It floats remote across the far-off plain / Upward into its dwelling-place, the skies, / Then o'er the town it slowly sinks again. / Like rain it softly falls at that dim hour / When ghostly lanes turn toward the shadowy morn; / When bodies weighed with satiate passion's power / Sad, disappointed from each other turn; / When men with quiet hatred burning deep / Together in a common bed must sleep -- / Through the gray, phantom shadows of the dawn / Lo! Solitude floats down the river wan.