His vision, from the constantly passing bars, has grown so weary that it cannot holdanything else. It seems to him there area thousand bars, and behind the bars, no world. As he paces in cramped circles, over and over, the movement of his powerful soft stridesis like a ritual dance around a centerin which a mighty will stands paralyzed. Only at times, the curtain of the pupilslifts, quietly. An image enters in, rushes down through the tense, arrested muscles, plunges into the heart and is gone. Rainer Maria Rilke
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"His vision, from the constantly passing bars,has grown so weary that it cannot hold anything else. It seems to him there a thousand bars, and behind the bars, no world.As he paces in cramped circles, over and over,the movement of his powerful soft stridesis like a ritual dance around a center in which a mighty will stands paralyzed.Only at times, the curtain of the pupils lifts, quietly. An image enters in, rushes down through the tense, arrested muscles, plunges into the heart and is gone." The speaker in this poem is describing his mental state after two years of incarceration. The prisoner describes how he has become trapped in circular motions where everything is blocked out by the many obstacles that keep him from moving forward. He has been incarcerated for two years and can't seem to get out of his circle because he keeps getting lost in the maze of his thoughts.

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