god
Apollo
also: Phoebus
Greek and Roman god of light, music, and poetry; patron of the lyre and the laurel. Rilke's 'Früher Apollo' shows the god still youthful, before the poems and the laurel have come.
Reading notes
- New Poems: The Other Part §1 torso
The headless antique torso of Apollo, god of light and poetry; though it lacks eyes, the whole stone sees the viewer and commands, 'You must change your life.'
- Early Poems §24 stone Apollo
A garden statue of Apollo, Greek god of light and poetry, left sighing among the withered leaves until spring crowns him with lilac.
- New Poems §1 laurel
The young Apollo, god of poetry and the sun, shown before the victor's laurel and the poems have come; the rose-garden of song is only budding from his brow.
- The Sonnets to Orpheus §3 Apollo
Greek god of music, light, and the lyre, and Orpheus's patron; at the crossing of the divided human heart, Rilke says, there stands no temple for him.