‘Archaic Torso of Apollo’ by Rainer Maria Rilke details the remaining beauty and power of a damage sculpture missing its head and legs.
Rilke was a highly influential poet in the 20th century, known for his introspective and philosophical works. He was a master of form and language, and his poetry is characterized by its emotional depth and vivid imagery. This poem about art is one of his best-known and certainly one of the best poems about art.
We cannot know his legendary head
with eyes like ripening fruit. And yet his torso
is still suffused with brilliance from inside,
like a lamp, in which his gaze, now turned to low,
‘I Am Much Too Alone in this World, Yet Not Alone Enough’ describes the plight of a man torn between his own desires and those that he has adopted his falling in love.
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