ApolloGreek god of music, healing and prophecy
The following is an example of ekphrastic poetry.
Ekphrasis, a new word to me; yesterday to be exact!
Archaic Torso of Apollo
by Rainer Maria Rilke
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,
gleams in all its power. Otherwise
the curved breast could not dazzle you so, nor could
a smile run through the placid hips and thighs
to that dark centre where procreation flared.
Otherwise this stone would seem defaced
beneath the translucent cascade of the shoulders
and would not glisten like a wild beast's fur;
would not, from all the borders of itself,
burst like a star; for here there is no place
that does not see you. You must change your life.
~~~~~~~~
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,
gleams in all its power. Otherwise
the curved breast could not dazzle you so, nor could
a smile run through the placid hips and thighs
to that dark centre where procreation flared.
Otherwise this stone would seem defaced
beneath the translucent cascade of the shoulders
and would not glisten like a wild beast's fur;
would not, from all the borders of itself,
burst like a star; for here there is no place
that does not see you. You must change your life.
~~~~~~~~
