“It is one thing to be asked to carry a cabbage across the street, quite another to be asked to carry the recently unearthed head of Rilke’s Apollo.” (Cunningham 77).
Ranier Maria Rilke, a poet, wrote a beautiful poem, "Torso of an Archaic Apollo," now translated from German, about a headless statue of the beautiful Apollo, a Greek god. Apollo embodies many things, but all replications of him have been beautiful; he is, above all, an embodiment of beauty and youth. In the poem, however, the statue of Apollo being viewed that is so loved and revered is missing a head, and the author bemoans this fact. So if one was to “unearth” the head of Apollo, it would be important to the author of the poem to see it, but it would also represent the discovery and capture of youth and beauty. Carrying the head would be a task of utmost importance, and one that must be delicately performed.
No comments:
Post a Comment