Read "Growing Blind" by Rainer Maria Rilke online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
Among all the others there sat a guest / Who sipped her tea as if one apart, / And she held her cup not quite like the rest; / Once she smiled so it pierced one's heart.
When the group of people arose at last / And laughed and talked in a merry tone, / As lingeringly through the rooms they passed / I saw that she followed alone.
Tense and still like one who to sing must rise / Before a throng on a festal night / She lifted her head, and her bright glad eyes / Were like pools which reflected light.
She followed on slowly after the last / As though some object must be passed by, / And yet as if were it once but passed / She would no longer walk but fly.