What is the tone of a poem which believes death is better and living is awkward?

Question

I am doing a paper on the poem "The Swan" by Rainer Maria Rilke. I have to figure out a tone.

Answer 1

I'd say the tone is meditative and melancholic.

"The labouring through what is still undone,
as though, legs bound, we hobbled along the way,
is like the awkward walking of the swan.

And dying - to let go, no longer feel
the solid ground we stand on every day
is like his anxious letting himself fall
into the water, which receives him gently
and which, as though with reverence and joy,
draws back past him in streams on either side;
while, infinitely silent and aware,
in his full majesty and ever more
indifferent, he condescends to glide."

Answer 2

POETRY ANALYSIS.

http://rpo.library.utoronto.ca/display/indexpoet.html

http://www.poetrymagic.co.uk/critiquing.html

http://www.sparknotes.com/poetry/

http://www.tnellen.com/cybereng/37.html

Poetry Analysis Fact Sheet

http://www.tnellen.com/cybereng/analysis.html

HOW TO EXPLICATE A POEM

A poetry explication is a relatively short analysis which describes the possible meanings and relationships of the words, images, and other small units that make up a poem. Writing an explication is an effective way for a reader to connect a poem's plot and conflicts with its structural features.

http://wwwpp.uwrf.edu/~sl01/explcat.html

http://www.unc.edu/depts/wcweb/handouts/poetry-explication.html

Good luck.

Kevin, Liverpool, England.