place
Meroë
The ancient Nubian capital on the upper Nile, a byword for gold; Rilke makes it the golden idea the alchemists' fathers kept casting out of their hearts toward the edge of the world.
Reading notes
- New Poems: The Other Part §25 Meroë
The Nubian city famed for gold; the gold-seekers keep flinging the name out of their hearts toward the edge of the world, and the metal, once won, loves no one who is weakened by it.