Page:Poems of Rainer Maria Rilke (1918).djvu/75

 MAIDENS AT CONFIRMATION

(Paris in May, 1903)

The white veiled maids to confirmation go

Through deep green garden paths they slowly wind;

Their childhood they are leaving now behind:

The future will be different, they know.

Oh! Will it come? They wait—It must come soon!

The next long hour slowly strikes at last,

The whole house stirs again, the feast is past,

And sadly passes by the afternoon

Like resurrection were the garments white

The wreathed procession walked through trees arched wide

Into the church, as cool as silk inside,

With long aisles of tall candles flaming bright:

The lights all shone like jewels rich and rare

To solemn eyes that watched them gleam and flare.

Then through the silence the great song rose high

Up to the vaulted dome like clouds it soared,

Then luminously, gently down it poured—

Over white veils like rain it seemed to die.

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