Analyze of "Archaic Torso of Apollo

In reading this poem, “Archaic Torso of Apollo” by Rilke, the first thing that comes to mind would be that it has a soul. The poem is talking about a piece of art that was created by someone, but it has been given a life of its own outside of being created. In looking into his eyes we see “his glaze, now turned low” that the created one is developing into a being all of his own.

This poem has brought about a new way of looking at things created by another’s hand. A soul would be inside of it, this is not just from the creator of it but also the ones that have looked upon it seeing that “from all the borders of itself, burst like a star”. This should cause everyone that looks at the piece of art to learn to grow from what is around them as well.

T.S. Eliot is the man that wrote “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”, but could the poem have truly been about how he felt towards people, woman in particular? It seems that the man involved is fraught within himself as what to do about his life. His reality is one of a man that has developed “a bald spot in the middle” of his hair. His physical appearances being of “his arms and legs” are not much improved. This is his reality, but his thoughts go to whether or not he would have enough courage to talk to women. His perception is of these women being something special and beyond approach to him. When there is someone that looks upon something as being out of their reach or above them, they will never be able to communicate with it or them. Therefore, it could be that it was not even women that he looked upon in this matter, but that he was looking at what his future held for him and when he died. Was he perhaps looking ahead at the angels that would be surrounding him one day and helping to pass judgment upon him? Could he have simply been a normal man that was scared to die as he had lived, alone?