Explore "Archaic Torso of Apollo" by Rainer Maria Rilke on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
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.