Page:Poems of Rainer Maria Rilke (1918).djvu/93

 ARCHAIC TORSO OF APOLLO

We cannot fathom his mysterious head,

Through the veiled eyes no flickering ray is sent:

But from his torso gleaming light is shed

As from a candelabrum; inward bent

His glance there glows and lingers. Otherwise

The round breast would not blind you with its grace,

Nor could the soft-curved circle of the thighs

Steal to the arc whence issues a new race.

Nor could this stark and stunted stone display

Vibrance beneath the shoulders heavy bar,

Nor shine like fur upon a beast of prey,

Nor break forth from its lines like a great star—

There is no spot that does not bind you fast

And transport you back, back to a far past.

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