Explore "The Panther" by Rainer Maria Rilke on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
His weary glance, from passing by the bars, / Has grown into a dazed and vacant stare; / It seems to him there are a thousand bars / And out beyond those bars the empty air.
The pad of his strong feet, that ceaseless sound / Of supple tread behind the iron bands, / Is like a dance of strength circling around, / While in the circle, stunned, a great will stands.
But there are times the pupils of his eyes / Dilate, the strong limbs stand alert, apart, / Tense with the flood of visions that arise / Only to sink and die within his heart.