Page:Poems of Rainer Maria Rilke (1918).djvu/91

 OFFERING

My body glows in every vein and blooms

To fullest flower since I first knew thee,

My walk unconscious pride and power assumes;

Who art thou then—thou who awaitest me?

When from the past I draw myself the while

I lose old traits as leaves of autumn fall;

I only know the radiance of thy smile,

Like the soft gleam of stars, transforming all.

Through childhood's years I wandered unaware

Of shimmering visions my thoughts now arrests

To offer thee, as on an altar fair

That's lighted by the bright flame of thy hair

And wreathéd by the blossoms of thy breasts.

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