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Turning-point by Rainer Maria Rilke

When human open their eyes, many events happen. Eyes is one

importance organ of human, and looking is necessary thing of humans

lives as well. Each person has different perspectives or views in their lives.

Many people think that looking is one of the happiness in lives. In

contrast, some people can be sad and depress by looking too. Looking

can be the beginning of some peoples lives also. There is one person of

the well-known German poetry who is Rainer Maria Rilke, and he is

interest in looking. Turning-point is a poem written by Rainer Maria Rilke.

It is written in 54 lines and divided into 10 uneven stanzas. Turning point is

the mark of an important event or issue that is happening in someones

life. In this poem, the poet main focus is to describe how his previous

vision and the impact of his new found perspective will affect his style in

the future and the description of his development as a poet. The poem is

written at the third person which is a tool use by many poets in order to

distance themselves from the speaker or to diverge from the poem itself.

But, it is obvious that the person narrating is Rilke himself. Rainer Maria

Rilke wrote Turning-point to give deeply meaning of looking in his point.

Rainer Maria Rilke wants to represent looking of his life. He uses

symbolism and Imaginary to show how visible things can be understood

by eyes. He also explains the things that he cannot look by his eyes and

finally realizes that he needs to look at himself too. This poem describes

the focus and the power of the observation of our world and the transition
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that Rilke is subjected in order to bring his vision and inspiration from

inward to outer world.

First of all, the poem starts with a quote from the philosopher Rudolf

Kassner who is a friend of Rilke( Foundation Rilke, n.d). The quote talk

about a time in which Rilke is enlighten and change the way that he sees

the world exterior in order to focus on the observation from within. This is

the start of his new era of inspiration. The poem is composing of two

mains part in which each of the part Rilke describe his own and new

inspiration. The first part from the beginning until the end of fifth stanza.

This is the long part of the poem in which Rilke assess his old way of

seeing thing, his former perspective and the way that his poems were

written until the creation of this poem. The second part of this poem which

start at the sixth stanza until the end, describe his revelation and the

doubts that he has concerning his previous perspectives. It is also

description of the new intension and the change that he will make in his

upcoming poems.

Secondly, Rainer Maria Rilke uses three vision to explain perspective

in his life. He compares the things that people want so much such as

stars. This is because stars stay in the sky so it is very hard to get because

everyone have somethings that they wish in their life, and they have to

attempt to fulfill their wish. According to the poem Stars would fall to
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their knees beneath his compelling vision. (Rilke, 1913-1918, p.133) This

sentence can describe as when the poet is looking inside his soul and

discover why he loves someone so much and his intense desire for her.

Therefore, it might be that the narrator has a secret love affair with

someone and asks himself the question of why he loves her so much. In

addition, He uses towers as a second symbol of his poem. It is because

the stars and towers are seen as a similar way to go to meet his secret

lover. Moreover, the narrator is a German-poet same as Wilhelm Grim who

wrote Rapunzel in 1812. ( Rapunzel by Jacob and Wilhem Grimm, n.d).

From the reader perspective, the narrator has inspiration from Rapunzel

(Biography.com Editors, n.d). This is the reason why some part of

Rapunzel is used to paint the picture of the towers which is the pathway

for the prince to go to meet his lover. According to the poem

Overburdened by day, came to rest in his silent awareness, at nightfall.

(Rilke, 1913-1918, p.133). The narrator waits until night time in order to

meet her. The last symbol is animals. Rainer Maria Rilke use animals to

compared to people. According to poem Animals trusted him. (Rilke,

1913-1918, p.133). It can be related to the fact that the narrator is

cheating on his wife with his lover, betraying her trust.

Rainer Maria Rilke use the rumor as a symbol that cannot be

detected by his eyes. There is many information in peoples lives that they

can control or make sure about it. Some actions or behaviors of every

people cannot confirm the results as rumors. Rumors is one things that

human cannot know or confirm if the nature is true or false because there
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are not sufficient evidences. Rumors can make people for imagining many

things in their lives. For instance, According to the poem one more the

room, and later from the tormenting bed. (Rilke, 1913-1918, p.135). In

this paragraph, it can express that he is happy with his affair and he is

overlooking the feelings of his wife. Overtime, he fears that someday his

wife will know about his mistake or he starts to feel guilty and is conscious

about the way he behaves. It can relate to people in nowadays. Every

people have to make some mistakes in their lives in order to learn and

everyone always thinks about the results. There are many things in their

lives that they do not see by their eyes but they believe and feel guilty

about it. Thus, the narrator uses the rumors as symbols of invisible things

that cannot be seen by the eyes but people can know and there are

effects on peoples lives.

Lastly, Rainer Maria Rilke use imaginary to explain the realization of

looking into himself. The poem wants to tell that the important thing of

looking in peoples lives is not looking at other things only but people

should be looking at themselves also. This is the reason why most people

nowadays always criticize other before looking at themselves. In addition,

some people never criticize or look at themselves. In this poem, the poet

tries to express his experience about realization of something by looking

at himself. Moreover, he wants to tell that people should stop looking at

others but they should begin to look at themselves according to in this

poem, Work of eyes is done, now go and do heart-work. (Rilke, 1913-

1918, p.135). Looking at himself is one of turning point of his life. He

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wants to inform that when people looking at themselves more, they will

have time to consider themselves. Furthermore, people can develop,

improve and fix their mistake. According to the poet, by just looking at the

outer world, there are limitation upon the sight. By looking at oneself

inward, it can bring the realization of a higher level of perspective such as

love. Love is like the wind, it is a feeling, not something that can be seen.

The poet also means that sometime you see the world and your brain

capture the image of it on all the images imprisoned within you. (Rilke,

1913-1918, p.135), those images can sometime be painful and

demotivate you. But he also stated , / for you overpowered them, /

(Rilke, 1913-1918, p.135) --in which he means it doesnt matter how hard

it gets, you must find a way to overcome your fear.

In conclusion, the word Turning point of each person is different. Each

person has different goals or intension same as Rainer Maria Rilke. He wants

to change intension of his life from his experience that happens in his life.

In this poem, he uses star as a symbol of a dream or somethings that

people wants, tower as a symbol of Rapunzel which tower is used to be a

representative of pathway for gaining his desire, animals is representative

of people or his wife and the last symbol is rumor as invisible things or
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overlooking. Finally, the poet uses the imaginary through this poem to tell

that when he realizes something in his life, he should look at himself

before looking at other.

Reference

- Rilke, R. (1913-1918). The Selected Poetry of Rainer Maria Rilke. (S.

Mitchell, Trans.) .

New York, NY : Random House, 1982.

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-Wilhelm Grimm. (n.d.). Retrieved June 03, 2016, from

http://www.biography.com/people/wilhelm-grimm-21085173#grimms-

fairy-tales

-Rapunzel. (n.d.). Retrieved June 03, 2016, from

http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/grimm012a.html

-Rudolf Kassners biography (1873-1959). (n.d.). Retrieved June 13, 2016,

from http://fondationrilke.ch/en/rainer-maria-rilke/rudolf-kassner/rudolf-
kassners-biography/
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B1- Star-looking some things like a dream

tower-
animals- other see us
he want to why he love his
so much .
B2 - the rumour
Start guity
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B3 -images imprison (work eyes is done, now do heart work)

- Look inner man, to look on your inner women

realization of his mistake

Turning point =

Intensity = hard