Archaic Torso and Angel

Rilke's 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,

Maya Angelou's Touched by an Angel
We, unaccustomed to courage
exiles from delight
live coiled in shells of loneliness

Archaic Torso and Angel

Rilke's 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,

Maya Angelou's Touched by an Angel
We, unaccustomed to courage
exiles from delight
live coiled in shells of loneliness