Poems of Rainer Maria Rilke (1918)/Kings in Legends

by Rainer Maria Rilke

KINGS IN LEGENDS

 

Kings in old legends seem
Like mountains rising in the evening light.
They blind all with their gleam,
Their loins encircled are by girdles bright,
Their robes are edged with bands
Of precious stones—the rarest earth affords—
With richly jeweled hands
They hold their slender, shining, naked swords.