The Panther Poem Summary

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Recommended: Analysis of 'Panther' Poem by Rilke

The Panther, published in 1927, depicts a picture of a panther locked in a cage of a zoo. The setting is the cage of iron bars and because of being tired he cannot see anything. To him, it looks like there are thousands of bars and as a result, confusing his vision. To him, there is no world behind the cage. The speaker, whom seems to be a bystander at a zoo, portrays the panther as being bored out of his mind, therefore walking in endless circles. It is written in a predominantly iambic meter. The panther is sad and tired of his monotonous life of being in the cage all day. The conflicts of the poem are internal and are within the panther because he is powerless and paralyzed. In the first stanza, the panther is portrayed as powerless. Rilke uses the comparison of “a thousand bars” and emptiness to show that the panther has no freedom. It shoes that the panther feels hopeless and imprisoned. It doesn’t see beyond the “constant passing bars” because he knows that he is trapped. In the second stanza, the panther appears to be gradually gaining his control. The panther is now moving ...

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