Poem by Rainer Maria Rilke, 1875 – 1926
Archaic Torso of Apollo
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 center 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.
- In the Manner of the poem Archaic Torso of Apollo, write a 14-line poem (a sonnet) with at least 10 syllables per line,that does not have to rhyme.
- choose an image from the Powerpoint in which something is missing, any time period, it can be a complete image but one where there seems to be something missing, in other words, you use your imagination to think about what you don’t see in the picture.
- write about how the things that are missing make the subject more valuable
- Make reference to an invocation of the gods, Apollo or Zeus, what might you need to sacrifice to them, what would be an appropriate sacrifice gain the favor of the Furies?)
Mention at least one god or figure from Greek mythology.