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I would never claim to be an authority on the meaning of this poem...as a matter of fact, like most people, it takes a lot of work on my part to glean things from poems... but for me, this poem has universal value. There are things that hold people back in life-self imposed or by others-and this poem uses the panther behind the bars at the zoo (that Rilke saw in Paris) to illustrate this point. The last part of the poem is particularly interesting to me because it suggest that though our innate desires can be stifled, these instincts don’t go away...they are still there...is this hope? Maybe our passions never die...and we are doomed to live behind these bars. I dont know. What does this poem mean to you?
