Rainer Maria Rilke is considered as one among the most significant poets in the German language. Rilke was a Bohemian–Austrian poet. He did not have a happy childhood and he was later on made to join a military academy following his parents’ separation. But he did not complete his studies from there as he had to leave due to his illness.
During the period 1902-1910, is when Rilke had a transformation, when he started to become deeply involved in the sculpture of Rodin. Rodin taught him the value of objective observation and from this Rilke developed a change in his poetic style from the subjective and broken language into something new to the European style.
“The Panther” depicts the picture of a panther being locked in a cage and is not able to go around as per its freedom. In the initial phase of the poem, the poet says that even though the panther is a strong animal, it has been locked in a caged room and is denied its freedom.
Here the poet says that since the panther is so tired that he is not able to realize where he is and can figure that there are only bars around him from all sides and he cannot gout from there, no matter how hard he tries. Hence he keeps circling in the cage thinking that somehow he could get out and do not seem to be willing to get tamed.
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These depict how people view and are being viewed by the outside world and unfortunately, those eyes does not become useful for the poet in their household work but instead becomes a distress.
In the second stanza, it explains that even though the panther is a strong animal, it seems like he has lost all the energy that he had with him.
Sometimes, when he opens his eyes, a blurred image only would be visible and that at times do create a confused movement in the cage by the panther. Sometimes he opens his eyes and sees an image which does not get registered in his mind as it does not affect the heart.
Here the poet is discussing about the freedom that one needs and how much the panther would love to be in it`s wild habitat. Since the vision is blurred, he circles in the cage and finally wishes if he was released for one day at least to enjoy himself at his habitat.
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Lastly he states that since the panther has nothing to do, other than circling in the cage, he losses his talents and likes of being in wild and eventually would get tired most of the time, that at times, it may just open its eye lid, look at us and go back to sleep. As he is not being energetic and is being caged and restricted from movements.
In this poem, the poet describes about animals being caged and not set free to move around in the natural habitat or environment, and no matter which animal it may be, the effect is same while being locked in a cage. They loose their interest in mobility and would be always at lethargy and sadness.
This is a beautiful poem that shows how humans could be cruel to animals and how the poor animals cannot do anything to help themselves.
