“You Who Never Arrived” Question Answers ENG A WBCHSE 11

“You Who Never Arrived” by Rainer Maria Rilke Question Answers. The poem is included in the syllabus of ENG A for grade 11 (WBCHSE: West Bengal Council of Higher Secondary Education). The poem is addressed to a beloved who does not seem to reciprocate the love of the speaker.

Rilke‘s “You Who Never Arrived” is a poem of two stanzas that deals with his mystical longing for glimpses of running elusive beloved. The poet here is not shown to be struggling to find his true love, but he has accepted the fact that his beloved will forever remain tantalizingly close to him but just out of reach. The poet says that his beloved was lost even before the start. This is indicative of the fact that he has never met her.

But he continues by saying that she resides within him and he has constructed a whole world complete with landscapes, cities, towers, and bridges in his soul. He equalizes her with his soul and credits the power that pulses within him making him alive to her. But he lives with the longing that he will be meeting her someday, yet accepting the fact that she is forever going to elude him and that he will never find her in reality. 

      Rilke takes the second stanza to illustrate his beloved’s elusive nature. He analogizes her with gardens that he has gazed at with longing but has never been able to own them. Equating her with the garden projects, his beloved as a picture of peace, trang and beauty. Described as the open window of a country house, his beloved is available but unapproachable; she is very close to him, but steps back at the very last moment. Her evasive nature makes it impossible to track her. The poet realizes while walking on unexpected streets that his beloved has just walked upon the same path but again missed her by a heartbeat. 

LONG  QUESTION  ANSWER

Question 1:Rilke’s poem “You Who Never Arrived” is an escape from despair-elucidate. 

Ans: Rilke believes that a man can never find his soul mate or one true love in his lifetime. The poet can feel the presence of his beloved everywhere he goes and he is of the belief that every steps he takes is tracing her footsteps. Feeling her presence in the mirror, in ships on the street all points towards this belief. It can be deduced that such an ideal beloved exists not in reality, but within the poet himself. Yet the poet wants to live in an illusion of knowing that his beloved is out there, somewhere, but he will never find her. The poet’s beloved exists more in fantasy than in reality. 

SHORT ANSWER QUESTION

Question 1: Refer to two important works of Rilke. 

Ans: Rilke’s two most important and famous works are Letters to Young Poet and Duino Elegies. 

Question 2:How do we come to know from the poem that there were no intimate relationships between the lover and his lady-love? 

Ans: The poet says that his beloved was lost before the start which indicates they have never met before and this indicates there were no intimate relationship between poet and his lover. 

Question 3: What are the ‘immense images’ refer to in the poem? 

Ans: The immense images in the poem are- the far off, deeply felt landscapes cities, towers and bridges and unsuspected turns in the path and the powerful land which were pulsing with the lives of God. 

Question 4: Explain the term ‘Powerful Lamps’? 

Ans: Here, ‘Powerful Lamps’ has been referred to the path or turning roads where God have taken birth which used to be heavily crowded. The beloved might have been visiting their roads. 

Question 5: What does the ‘dizzy’ picture reflected on the mirror suggest? 

Ans:The ‘dizzy’ picture reflected the poet’s lover’s hazy pictures which have been reflected in the mirror as if she was present in the shop. Just a moment before the poet arrived suggests who had missed her by a heartbeat. 

Question 6: What does ‘Echoing of the bird’ reflect? 

Ans: The echoing of the bird reflected that someday author and his lover would have same feeling.