place
Jardin d'Acclimatation
A zoological pleasure-garden in Paris that mounted colonial 'ethnographic' exhibitions; Rilke's poem recoils from its display of Ashanti people as a spectacle.
Reading notes
- The Book of Images §28 Jardin d'Acclimatation
A Paris zoological pleasure-garden that, in Rilke's day, mounted colonial 'ethnographic' exhibitions displaying Ashanti people from West Africa as a spectacle; the poem recoils from the display and finds the caged animals more faithful to themselves.