The Panther

"...the movement of his powerful soft strides." -"The Panther" by Rainer Maria Rilke

    This poem intrigued me more than most of the poems in this set. I believe because the reasonable interpretations were limited, the author is looking for the reader to get more out of the imagery and our own imagination than the simple allegory itself. First, I took some context clues to conclude that the poem must be about a prisoner and not an actual animal. An animal would not think of life behind bars as a life with "no world" (essentially no hope.) He would merely think of it as the new normal. Also, only man can have a will described as "mighty." With animals instinct can be masked as will. Humans truly desire and pursue goals. What I took from the poem was that humans can often times be thought of as panthers. Although we live in families and communities, we spend every waking minute of each day with ourselves. We corrupt ourselves and this leads to a powerful will to either do good or evil. However, when this will is suppressed either by physical imprisonment or social situations, our feelings become stronger. Maybe we once again long for social interaction or imaginative freedom. When we desire these but realize we cannot have them, we experience a spiritual death from the lack of hope. It is almost a form of torment. We can visualize what we want but cannot have it.