Page:Poems of Rainer Maria Rilke (1918).djvu/56

 KINGS IN LEGENDS

Kings in old legends seem

Like mountains rising in the evening light.

They blind all with their gleam,

Their loins encircled are by girdles bright,

Their robes are edged with bands

Of precious stones—the rarest earth affords—

With richly jeweled hands

They hold their slender, shining, naked swords.

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