Explore "Memories of a Childhood" by Rainer Maria Rilke on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
The darkness hung like richness in the room / When like a dream the mother entered there / And then a glass's tinkle stirred the air / Near where a boy sat in the silent gloom.
The room betrayed the mother -- so she felt -- / She kissed her boy and questioned "Are you here? " / And with a gesture that he held most dear / Down for a moment by his side she knelt.
Toward the piano they both shyly glanced / For she would sing to him on many a night, / And the child seated in the fading light / Would listen strangely as if half entranced,
His large eyes fastened with a quiet glow / Upon the hand which by her ring seemed bent / And slowly wandering o'er the white keys went / Moving as though against a drift of snow.