--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: May I strike my heart's keys clearly, and…" description: "\"May I strike my heart's keys clearly, and may none fail because of slack, uncertain, or fraying strings. May the tears that stream down my face make me..." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/7c7/rainer-maria-rilke-193_abode_may-i-strike-my-heart-s-keys-clearly-and_52479.jpg" --- # May I strike my heart's keys clearly, and may none fail… ![“May I strike my heart's keys clearly, and may none fail because of slack, uncertain, or fraying strings. May the tears that stream down my face make me more radiant: may my hidden weeping bloom… How we waste our afflictions!... [T]hey're really our wintering foliage, our dark greens of meaning…” quote by Rainer Maria Rilke](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/7c7/rainer-maria-rilke-193_abode_may-i-strike-my-heart-s-keys-clearly-and_52479.jpg) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/7c7/rainer-maria-rilke-193_abode_may-i-strike-my-heart-s-keys-clearly-and_52479.jpg) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/7c7/rainer-maria-rilke-193_abode_may-i-strike-my-heart-s-keys-clearly-and_52479.jpg) > “May I strike my heart's keys clearly, and may none fail because of slack, uncertain, or fraying strings. May the tears that stream down my face make me more radiant: may my hidden weeping bloom… How we waste our afflictions!... \[T\]hey're really our wintering foliage, our dark greens of meaning, one of the seasons of the clandestine year—; not only a season—: they're site, settlement, shelter, soil, abode.” [Rainer Maria Rilke](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rainer-maria-rilke/) ## About This Quote This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation. The poet urges embracing emotional pain as a source of creative vitality, suggesting that sorrow can fertilize inner growth and purpose. **In simple terms:** Pain fuels artistic renewal. Key Takeaway Suffering can be transformative. Themes creativity emotional resilience growth nature metaphor self‑acceptance Mood melancholic hopeful Type philosophical poetic When to use this quote - writer facing block - artist processing grief - person confronting personal loss Key Concepts artistic inspiration psychological alchemy seasonal cycles Practical Applications - use as a meditation prompt for creative workshops - incorporate into therapy exercises on reframing pain Questions to Reflect On - How might acknowledging pain change your creative process? - What does it mean to view sorrow as fertile ground? ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet [Affliction](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/affliction/) [Dark](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/dark/) [Faces](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/faces/) [Foliage](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/foliage/) [Heart](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/heart/) [Seasons](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/seasons/) [Shelter](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/shelter/) [Strikes](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/strikes/) [Tears](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/tears/) [Waste](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/waste/) ## Related quotes > [How I will cherish you then, you grief-torn nights! Had I only received you, inconsolable sisters, on more abject knees, only buried myself with…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rainer-maria-rilke/how-i-will-cherish-you-then-you-grief-torn-nights-had-i-only-received/) [Rainer Maria Rilke](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rainer-maria-rilke/) > [We wasters of sorrows! How we stare away into sad endurance beyond them, trying to foresee their end! Whereas they are nothing else than…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rainer-maria-rilke/we-wasters-of-sorrows-how-we-stare-away-into-sad-endurance-beyond/) [Rainer Maria Rilke](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rainer-maria-rilke/) > [As a nation we have, over the past seven years, been rebuilding our intelligence with powerful capabilities that many thought we would no longer…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/george-tenet/as-a-nation-we-have-over-the-past-seven-years-been-rebuilding-our/) [George Tenet](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/george-tenet/) > [“I like the word clandestine. It feels medieval. Sometimes I think of words as being alive. If clandestine were alive, it would be a…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/carol-rifka-brunt/i-like-the-word-clandestine-it-feels-medieval-sometimes-i-think-of/) [Carol Rifka Brunt](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/carol-rifka-brunt/) > [Enter each day with the expectation that the happenings of the day may contain a clandestine message addressed to you personally. Expect omens, epiphanies,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/sam-keen/enter-each-day-with-the-expectation-that-the-happenings-of-the-day/) [Sam Keen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/sam-keen/) > [They were still in the happier stage of love. They were full of brave illusions about each other, tremendous illusions, so that the communion…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/f-scott-fitzgerald/they-were-still-in-the-happier-stage-of-love-they-were-full-of-brave/) [F. Scott Fitzgerald](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/f-scott-fitzgerald/) > [“That’s funny. You would think after being followed and shoved into a dark alley by a stranger, you would be at least a little…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/nicole-rae/that-s-funny-you-would-think-after-being-followed-and-shoved-into-a/) Nicole Rae > [The Iraq Survey Group has already found massive evidence of a huge system of clandestine laboratories, workings by scientists, plans to develop long range…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/tony-blair/the-iraq-survey-group-has-already-found-massive-evidence-of-a-huge/) [Tony Blair](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/tony-blair/) > [True poetry ought to be secret and clandestine, concealed like a prohibited voice of dissent, while at the same time it should speak to…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/claudio-magris/true-poetry-ought-to-be-secret-and-clandestine-concealed-like-a/) [Claudio Magris](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/claudio-magris/) > [Racism is a much more clandestine, much more hidden kind of phenomenon, but at the same time it's perhaps far more terrible than it's…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/angela-davis/racism-is-a-much-more-clandestine-much-more-hidden-kind-of-phenomenon/) [Angela Davis](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/angela-davis/) > [What is dangerous is not minarets, but basements and garages that hide clandestine places of worship. Thus we must choose between mosques, where we…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/nicolas-sarkozy/what-is-dangerous-is-not-minarets-but-basements-and-garages-that-hide/) [Nicolas Sarkozy](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/nicolas-sarkozy/) > [Throughout the twentieth century and into the beginning of the twenty-first, the United States repeatedly used its military power, and that of its clandestine…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/stephen-kinzer/throughout-the-twentieth-century-and-into-the-beginning-of-the-twenty/) [Stephen Kinzer](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/stephen-kinzer/) > [“If you are a crazy person who needs to have clandestine meetings, then, just like in real estate, what matters most is location, location,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/holly-black/if-you-are-a-crazy-person-who-needs-to-have-clandestine-meetings-then/) [Holly Black](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/holly-black/) > [“Emily squared her shoulders and said simply, “I’m fine, I’m not really loving your social skills though. Don’t you know this is no way…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/nicole-rae/emily-squared-her-shoulders-and-said-simply-i-m-fine-i-m-not-really/) Nicole Rae > [There is all the difference in the world between the criminal's avoiding the public eye and the civil disobedience's taking the law into his…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/hannah-arendt/there-is-all-the-difference-in-the-world-between-the-criminal-s/) [Hannah Arendt](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/hannah-arendt/) ## More by Rainer Maria Rilke > [The artist's experience lies so unbelievably close to the sexual, to its pain and its pleasure, that the two phenomena are really just different…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rainer-maria-rilke/the-artist-s-experience-lies-so-unbelievably-close-to-the-sexual-to/) [Rainer Maria Rilke](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rainer-maria-rilke/) > [“Out of infinite longings rise finite deeds like weak fountains, falling back just in time and trembling. And yet, what otherwise remains silent, our…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rainer-maria-rilke/out-of-infinite-longings-rise-finite-deeds-like-weak-fountains/) [Rainer Maria Rilke](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rainer-maria-rilke/) > [“I love the dark hours of my being. My mind deepens into them. 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Things will not abandon you. The nights are…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rainer-maria-rilke/if-there-is-nothing-you-can-share-with-other-people-try-to-be-close/) [Rainer Maria Rilke](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rainer-maria-rilke/) > [To be here is immense.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rainer-maria-rilke/to-be-here-is-immense/) [Rainer Maria Rilke](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rainer-maria-rilke/) > [“Sin is the most wonderfully roundabout path to God”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rainer-maria-rilke/sin-is-the-most-wonderfully-roundabout-path-to-god/) [Rainer Maria Rilke](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rainer-maria-rilke/) > [Swells, Marina? we ocean, depths, Marina? we sky!](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rainer-maria-rilke/swells-marina-we-ocean-depths-marina-we-sky/) [Rainer Maria Rilke](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rainer-maria-rilke/) > [“The point of marriage is not to create a quick commonality by tearing down all boundaries; on the contrary, a good marriage is one…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rainer-maria-rilke/the-point-of-marriage-is-not-to-create-a-quick-commonality-by-tearing/) [Rainer Maria Rilke](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rainer-maria-rilke/) > [You life will find its own paths... and that they be good, rich, and wide is what I wish for you, more than I…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rainer-maria-rilke/you-life-will-find-its-own-paths-and-that-they-be-good-rich-and-wide/) [Rainer Maria Rilke](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rainer-maria-rilke/) > [I do not want to be folded for where I am folded, there I am a lie.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rainer-maria-rilke/i-do-not-want-to-be-folded-for-where-i-am-folded-there-i-am-a-lie/) [Rainer Maria Rilke](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rainer-maria-rilke/) > [At no other time (than autumn) does the earth let itself be inhaled in one smell, the ripe earth; in a smell that is…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rainer-maria-rilke/at-no-other-time-than-autumn-does-the-earth-let-itself-be-inhaled-in/) [Rainer Maria Rilke](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rainer-maria-rilke/) > [“That is why the sadness passes: the new presence inside us, the presence that has been added, has entered our heart, has gone into…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rainer-maria-rilke/that-is-why-the-sadness-passes-the-new-presence-inside-us-the/) [Rainer Maria Rilke](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rainer-maria-rilke/) > [“Have patience with everything that remains unsolved in your heart. Try to love the questions themselves, like locked rooms, like books written in a…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rainer-maria-rilke/have-patience-with-everything-that-remains-unsolved-in-your-heart-try/) [Rainer Maria Rilke](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rainer-maria-rilke/) [Explore all 861 Rainer Maria Rilke quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rainer-maria-rilke/) ## More Abode quotes > [Yes, would to God that I could persuade the rich and the mighty that they would permit the whole Bible to be painted on…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/martin-luther/yes-would-to-god-that-i-could-persuade-the-rich-and-the-mighty-that/) [Martin Luther](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/martin-luther/) > [Perseverance gives power to weakness, and opens to poverty the world's wealth. It spreads fertility over the barren landscape, and buds the choicest flowers…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/samuel-griswold-goodrich/perseverance-gives-power-to-weakness-and-opens-to-poverty-the-world-s/) Samuel Griswold Goodrich > [The setting sun is reflected from the windows of the alms-house as brightly as from the rich man's abode.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/henry-david-thoreau/the-setting-sun-is-reflected-from-the-windows-of-the-alms-house-as/) [Henry David Thoreau](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/henry-david-thoreau/) > [You can study God through everything and everyone in the universe, because God is not confined in a mosque, synagogue or church. But if…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anonymous/you-can-study-god-through-everything-and-everyone-in-the-universe-2/) [Anonymous](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anonymous/) > [Blest be that spot, where cheerful guests retire To pause from toil, and trim their evening fire; Blest that abode, where want and pain…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/oliver-goldsmith/blest-be-that-spot-where-cheerful-guests-retire-to-pause-from-toil/) [Oliver Goldsmith](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/oliver-goldsmith/) > [For if that last day does not occasion an entire extinction, but a change of abode only, what can be more desirable? And if…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/marcus-tullius-cicero/for-if-that-last-day-does-not-occasion-an-entire-extinction-but-a/) [Marcus Tullius Cicero](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/marcus-tullius-cicero/) > [“Tho' you're tired and weary, still journey on, Till you come to your happy abode, Where all the love you've been dreaming of, Will…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anonymous/tho-you-re-tired-and-weary-still-journey-on-till-you-come-to-your/) [Anonymous](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anonymous/) > [It is sparkling light, aromatic plants, a lofty palace, a flowing river, ripe fruit, a beautiful wife and abundant clothing, in an eternal abode…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/muhammad/it-is-sparkling-light-aromatic-plants-a-lofty-palace-a-flowing-river/) [Muhammad](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/muhammad/) > [By unswerving devotion to Me, a man crosses over three Gunas - I am the Abode of Brahman, Eternal and Immutable, of everlasting Dharma…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/chinmayananda-saraswati/by-unswerving-devotion-to-me-a-man-crosses-over-three-gunas-i-am-the/) [Chinmayananda Saraswati](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/chinmayananda-saraswati/) > [Open the gates of wisdom, tear the veil of ignorance, enter the abode of Divine Bliss. Rest in peace forever.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/sathya-sai-baba/open-the-gates-of-wisdom-tear-the-veil-of-ignorance-enter-the-abode/) [Sathya Sai Baba](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/sathya-sai-baba/) > [‎We are already taking care of people from jail. Hundred and ten non-criminal women are already with us in Shantidhan (abode of peace).](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/mother-teresa/we-are-already-taking-care-of-people-from-jail-hundred-and-ten-non/) [Mother Teresa](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/mother-teresa/) > [Happy the life, that in a peaceful stream, Obscure, unnoticed through the vale has flow'd; The heart that ne'er was charm'd by fortune's gleam…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/james-gates-percival/happy-the-life-that-in-a-peaceful-stream-obscure-unnoticed-through/) [James Gates Percival](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/james-gates-percival/) > [The abode of God, too, is wherever is earth and sea and air, and sky and virtue. Why further do we seek the Gods…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lucan/the-abode-of-god-too-is-wherever-is-earth-and-sea-and-air-and-sky-and/) [Lucan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lucan/) > [I was brought up on the books of The Wizard of Oz and my mother told me that these were great philosophies. It was…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ray-bolger/i-was-brought-up-on-the-books-of-the-wizard-of-oz-and-my-mother-told/) [Ray Bolger](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ray-bolger/) > [Having a safe abode for other people in our lives to express their darkness AND their light to us without running or bottling up…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/kemmy-nola-http-wwwamoreloveforlifecom/having-a-safe-abode-for-other-people-in-our-lives-to-express-their/) Kemmy Nola Http://wwwamoreloveforlifecom Browse all 122 Abode quotes ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "May I strike my heart's keys clearly, and may none fail because of slack, uncertain, or fraying strings. May the tears that stream down my face make me more radiant: may my hidden weeping bloom… How we waste our afflictions!... 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