Landscape with clearing and robed figure holding harp, identified as Orpheus, standing staring up at the moon.
Orpheus Greeting the Moon
n.d.
Elbridge Kingsley
American, 1841-1915
(after Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot. French, 1796-1875)
Gift of Dwight W. Tryon

Orpheus Greeting the Moon

Sonnets to Orpheus, part I, lines 1-4:

     A tree ascended there. Oh pure transcendence!
     Oh Orpheus sings! Oh tall tree in the ear!
     And all things hushed. Yet even in that silence
     a new beginning, beckoning, change appeared. 

– Written by Rainer Maria Rilke in 1923. Translation by Stephen Mitchell

Add new comment
About text formats

Restricted HTML

  • Allowed HTML tags: <a href hreflang> <em> <strong> <cite> <blockquote cite> <code> <ul type> <ol start type> <li> <dl> <dt> <dd> <h2 id> <h3 id> <h4 id> <h5 id> <h6 id>
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.
  • Web page addresses and email addresses turn into links automatically.
TOP