Rainer Maria Rilke

Rilke redirects here. For other uses, see Rilke (disambiguation).

Ren Karl Wilhelm Johann Josef Maria Rilke (4 December 1875 29 December 1926) better known as
Rainer Maria Rilke (German: [an maia lk])
was a Bohemian-Austrian poet and novelist, widely
recognized as one of the most lyrically intense Germanlanguage poets,[1] writing in both verse and highly lyrical
prose. Several critics have described Rilkes work as inherently mystical.[2][3] His writings include one novel,
several collections of poetry, and several volumes of correspondence in which he invokes haunting images that focus on the diculty of communion with the ineable in
an age of disbelief, solitude, and profound anxiety. These
deeply existential themes tend to position him as a transitional gure between the traditional and the modernist
writers.
Rilke was born in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, travelled extensively throughout Europe, including Russia,
Spain, Germany, France, Italy, and in his later years settled in Switzerlandsettings that were key to the genesis and inspiration for many of his poems. While Rilke
is most known for his contributions to German literature, over 400 poems were originally written in French
and dedicated to the canton of Valais in Switzerland.
Among English-language readers, his best-known works
include the poetry collections Duino Elegies (Duineser
Elegien) and Sonnets to Orpheus (Die Sonette an Orpheus),
the semi-autobiographical novel The Notebooks of Malte
Laurids Brigge (Die Aufzeichnungen des Malte Laurids
Brigge), and a collection of ten letters that was published
after his death under the title Letters to a Young Poet
(Briefe an einen jungen Dichter). In the later 20th century, his work has found new audiences through its use
by New Age theologians and self-help authors,[4][5][6] and
through frequent quoting in television programs, books
and motion pictures.[7] In the United States, Rilke is one
of the more popular, best-selling poetsalong with 13thcentury Su mystic Rumi and 20th-century LebaneseAmerican poet Khalil Gibran.[8]

Rilke, three years old, circa 18781879

Hungary, now the Czech Republic). His childhood and

youth in Prague were not especially happy. His father,
Josef Rilke (18381906), became a railway ocial after an unsuccessful military career. His mother, Sophie (Phia) Entz (18511931), came from a well-todo Prague family, the Entz-Kinzelbergers, who lived in
a house on the Herrengasse (Pansk) 8, where Ren also
spent many of his early years. The relationship between
Phia and her only son was colored by her mourning for
an earlier child, a daughter who had died only one week
old. During Rilkes early years Phia acted as if she sought
to recover the lost girl through the boy by dressing him
in girls clothing.[9] His parents marriage failed in 1884.
His parents pressured the poetically and artistically tal1 Biography
ented youth into entering a military academy, which he
attended from 1886 until 1891, when he left owing to
illness. From 1892 to 1895 he was tutored for the uni1.1 Early life (18751896)
versity entrance exam, which he passed in 1895. Until
He was born Ren Karl Wilhelm Johann Josef Maria 1896 he studied literature, art history, and philosophy in
Rilke in Prague, capital of Bohemia (then part of Austria- Prague[10] and Munich.
1

1.2

1 BIOGRAPHY

Munich and Saint Petersburg

In 1897 in Munich, Rainer Maria Rilke met and fell

in love with the widely travelled, intellectual woman of
letters Lou Andreas-Salom. Rilke changed his rst
name from Ren" to Rainer at Lous urging because
she thought that name more masculine, forceful, and
Germanic.[11] His relationship with this married woman,
with whom he undertook two extensive trips to Russia,
lasted until 1900. But even after their separation, Lou
continued to be Rilkes most important condante until
the end of his life. Having trained from 1912 to 1913
as a psychoanalyst with Sigmund Freud, she shared her
knowledge of psychoanalysis with Rilke.
In 1898, Rilke undertook a journey lasting several weeks
to Italy. In 1899, he travelled with Lou and her husband,
Friedrich Andreas, to Moscow where he met the novelist Leo Tolstoy. Between May and August 1900, a second journey to Russia, accompanied only by Lou, again
took him to Moscow and Saint Petersburg, where he met
the family of Boris Pasternak and Spiridon Drozhzhin,
a peasant poet. Author Anna A. Tavis cites the cultures
of Bohemia and Russia as the key inuences on Rilkes
poetry and consciousness.[12]
Paula Modersohn-Becker (18761907), an early expressionist
In 1900, Rilke stayed at the artists colony at Worpswede. painter, became acquainted with Rilke in Worpswede and Paris,
(Later, his portrait would be painted by the proto- and painted his portrait in 1906.
expressionist Paula Modersohn-Becker, whom he got to
know at Worpswede.) It was here that he got to know the
years, Paris increasingly became the writers main resisculptor Clara Westho, whom he married the following
dence.
year. Their daughter Ruth (19011972) was born in DeThe most important works of the Paris period were Neue
cember 1901.
Gedichte (New Poems) (1907), Der Neuen Gedichte Anderer Teil (Another Part of the New Poems) (1908), the
two Requiem poems (1909), and the novel The Note1.3 Paris (19021910)
books of Malte Laurids Brigge, started in 1904 and comIn the summer of 1902, Rilke left home and travelled pleted in January 1910.
to Paris to write a monograph on the sculptor Auguste
Rodin. Before long his wife left their daughter with her
parents and joined Rilke there. The relationship between
Rilke and Clara Westho continued for the rest of his life;
a mutually agreed-upon eort at divorce was bureaucratically hindered by Rilkes ocial status as a Catholic,
though a non- practising one.

During the later part of this decade Rilke spent extended periods in Ronda, the famous bull-ghting centre
in southern Spain. There he kept a permanent room at the
Hotel Reina Victoria (built in 1906) where his room remains to this day as he left it, a mini-museum of Rilkeana.

At rst, Rilke had a dicult time in Paris, an experience

that he called on in the rst part of his only novel, The
Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge. At the same time, his
encounter with modernism was very stimulating: Rilke
became deeply involved in the sculpture of Rodin, and
then with the work of Paul Czanne. For a time he acted
as Rodins secretary, also lecturing and writing a long essay on Rodin and his work. Rodin taught him the value of
objective observation, and under this inuence Rilke dramatically transformed his poetic style from the subjective
and sometimes incantatory language of his earlier work
into something quite new in European literature. The result was the New Poems, famous for the thing-poems expressing Rilkes rejuvenated artistic vision. During these

1.4 Duino and the First World War (1911

1919)
Between October 1911 and May 1912, Rilke stayed at
the Castle Duino, near Trieste, home of Princess Marie
of Thurn und Taxis. There, in 1912, he began the poem
cycle called the Duino Elegies, which would remain unnished for a decade because of a long-lasting creativity crisis. The outbreak of World War I surprised Rilke during a
stay in Germany. He was unable to return to Paris, where
his property was conscated and auctioned. He spent the
greater part of the war in Munich. From 1914 to 1916 he
had a turbulent aair with the painter Lou Albert-Lasard.
Rilke was called up at the beginning of 1916, and he had

1.6

Death and burial

3
of the poem cycle Sonnets to Orpheus containing 55 entire sonnets. Both works together have often been taken
as constituting the high points of Rilkes work. In May
1922, Rilkes patron Werner Reinhart bought and renovated Muzot so that Rilke could live there rent-free.[13]
During this time, Reinhart introduced Rilke to his protge, the Australian violinist Alma Moodie.[14] Rilke
was so impressed with her playing that he wrote in a letter: What a sound, what richness, what determination.
That and the Sonnets to Orpheus, those were two strings
of the same voice. And she plays mostly Bach! Muzot
has received its musical christening...[14][15][16]

Duino Castle near Trieste, Italy, was where Rilke began writing
the Duino Elegies in 1912recounting that he heard the famous
rst line as a voice in the wind while walking along the clis and
that he wrote it quickly in his notebook.

to undertake basic training in Vienna. Inuential friends

interceded on his behalf, and he was transferred to the
War Records Oce and discharged from the military on
9 June 1916. He spent the subsequent time once again
in Munich, interrupted by a stay on Hertha Koenig's Gut
Bockel in Westphalia. The traumatic experience of military service, a reminder of the horrors of the military
academy, almost completely silenced him as a poet.

1.5

Switzerland and Muzot (19191926)

Chteau de Muzot in Veyras, Switzerland, was where Rilke completed writing the Duino Elegies in a savage creative storm in
February 1922.

On 11 June 1919, Rilke traveled from Munich to Switzerland. The outward motive was an invitation to lecture in
Zurich, but the real reason was the wish to escape the
post-war chaos and take up his work on the Duino Elegies
once again. The search for a suitable and aordable place
to live proved to be very dicult. Among other places,
Rilke lived in Soglio, Locarno, and Berg am Irchel. Only
in mid-1921 was he able to nd a permanent residence in
the Chteau de Muzot in the commune of Veyras, close
to Sierre in Valais. In an intense creative period, Rilke
completed the Duino Elegies in several weeks in February 1922. Before and after, Rilke rapidly wrote both parts

From 1923 on, Rilke increasingly had to struggle with

health problems that necessitated many long stays at a
sanatorium in Territet, near Montreux, on Lake Geneva.
His long stay in Paris between January and August 1925
was an attempt to escape his illness through a change in
location and living conditions. Despite this, numerous
important individual poems appeared in the years 1923
1926 (including Gong and Mausoleum), as well as the
abundant lyrical work in French.
In January and February 1926 Rilke wrote three letters
to the Mussolini-adversary Aurelia Gallarati Scotti, in
which he praised Benito Mussolini and described fascism
as a healing agent.[17][18][19]

1.6 Death and burial

Rilkes grave in Raron, Switzerland

Shortly before his death Rilkes illness was diagnosed

as leukemia. He suered ulcerous sores in his mouth,
pain troubled his stomach and intestines, and he struggled
with increasingly low spirits.[20] Open-eyed, he died in the
arms of his doctor on December 29, 1926 in the Valmont
Sanatorium in Switzerland. He was buried on 2 January
1927 in the Raron cemetery to the west of Visp.[20]
Rilke had chosen as his own epitaph this poem:

A myth developed surrounding his death and roses. It was

said: To honour a visitor, the Egyptian beauty Nimet
Eloui, Rilke gathered some roses from his garden. While
doing so, he pricked his hand on a thorn. This small
wound failed to heal, grew rapidly worse, soon his entire arm was swollen, and his other arm became aected
as well, and so he died.[20]

2
2.1

Writings
The Book of Hours

See also: The Book of Hours

Rilke published the three complete cycles of poems that
constitute The Book of Hours (Das Stunden-Buch) in
April 1905. These poems explore the Christian search
for God and the nature of Prayer, using symbolism from
Saint Francis and Rilkes observation of Orthodox Christianity during his travels in Russia in the early years of the
twentieth century.

2.2

The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge

See also: The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge

Rilke wrote his only novel, Die Aufzeichnungen des Malte Laurids Brigge (translated as The Notebooks of Malte
Laurids Brigge), while living in Paris and completed the
work in 1910. The novel is semi-autobiographical, and
he adopts the style and technique that became associated with the Expressionism that entered European ction and art in the early 20th century. Rilke was inspired
by Sigbjrn Obstfelder's work A Priests Diary and Jens
Peter Jacobsen's second novel Niels Lyhne (1880) which
traces the fate of an atheist in a merciless world. Rilke addresses existential themes, profoundly probing the quest
for individuality, the signicance of death, and reection
on the experience of time as death approaches. Rilke
draws considerably on the writings of Nietzsche, whose
work he came to know through his lover, Nietzsches former lover Lou-Andreas Salome. His work also incorporates impressionistic techniques that were inuenced by
the painter Czanne, and sculptor Rodin (whom Rilke
knew). He combines these techniques and motifs to conjure images of mankinds anxiety and alienation in the
face of an increasingly scientic, industrial, reied world.

WRITINGS

Duino Castle, near Trieste on the Adriatic Sea. During

this ten-year period, the elegies languished incomplete
for long stretches of time as Rilke suered frequently
from severe depressionsome of which was caused by
the events of World War I and his conscripted military
service. Aside from brief episodes of writing in 1913 and
1915, Rilke did not return to the work until a few years after the war ended. With a sudden, renewed inspiration
writing in a frantic pace he described as a savage creative
stormhe completed the collection in February 1922
while staying at Chteau de Muzot in Veyras, in Switzerlands Rhone Valley. After their publication and his death
shortly thereafter, the Duino Elegies were quickly recognized by critics and scholars as Rilkes most important
work.[21][22]
The Duino Elegies are intensely religious, mystical poems that weigh beauty and existential suering.[23] The
poems employ a rich symbolism of angels and salvation
but not in keeping with typical Christian interpretations.
Rilke begins the rst elegy in an invocation of philosophical despair, asking: Who, if I cried out, would hear
me among the hierarchies of angels?" (Wer, wenn ich
schriee, hrte mich denn aus der Engel Ordnungen?)[24]
and later declares that every angel is terrifying (Jeder
Engel ist schrecklich).[25] While labelling of these poems as elegies would typically imply melancholy and
lamentation, many passages are marked by their positive energy and unrestrained enthusiasm.[21] Together,
the Duino Elegies are described as a metamorphosis of
Rilkes "ontological torment and an impassioned monologue about coming to terms with human existence discussing themes of the limitations and insuciency of
the human condition and fractured human consciousness
... mans loneliness, the perfection of the angels, life and
death, love and lovers, and the task of the poet.[26]

2.4

Sonnets to Orpheus

See also: Sonnets to Orpheus

With news of the death of his daughters friend, Wera

Knoop (19001919), Rilke was inspired to create and set
to work on Sonnets to Orpheus.[27] Within a few days, between 2 February and 5 February 1922, he had completed
the rst section of 26 sonnets. For the next few days,
he focused on the Duino Elegies, completing them on the
evening of 11 February. Immediately after, he returned
to work on the Sonnets and completed the following section of 29 sonnets in less than two weeks. Throughout the
Sonnets, Wera appears in frequent references to her both
2.3 Duino Elegies
direct where he addresses her by name and indirect as
allusions to a dancer or the mythical Eurydice.[28] AlSee also: Duino Elegies
though Rilke claimed that the entire cycle was inspired by
Wera, she appears as a character in only one of the poems.
Rilke began writing the elegies in 1912 while a guest He insisted, however, that Weras own gure [...] neverof Princess Marie von Thurn und Taxis (18551934) at theless governs and moves the course of the whole.[29]

5
The content of the sonnets is, as is typical of Rilke, highly utation as a poet began to be established with the publimetaphorical. The character of Orpheus (whom Rilke cation of parts of Das Stunden-Buch (The Book of Hours)
refers to as the god with the lyre[30] ) appears several and Das Buch der Bilder (The Book of Images).[31]
times in the cycle, as do other mythical characters such
as Daphne. There are also biblical allusions, including a
reference to Esau. Other themes involve animals, peoples 3 Rilkes literary style
of dierent cultures, and time and death.

2.5

Letters to a Young Poet

"The Walk"
My eyes already touch the sunny hill,
going far ahead of the road I have begun.
So we are grasped by what we cannot grasp;
it has its inner light, even from a distance
and changes us, even if we do not reach it,
into something else, which, hardly sensing it, we already
are;
a gesture waves us on, answering our own wave ...
but what we feel is the wind in our faces.
The Walk by Rainer Maria Rilke (1924)
Translated by Robert Bly[32]
Figures from Greek mythology (e.g. Apollo, Hermes,
Orpheus) recur as motifs in his poems and are depicted in
original interpretations (e.g. in the poem Orpheus. Eurydice. Hermes, Rilkes Eurydice, numbed and dazed by
death, does not recognize her lover Orpheus, who descended to hell to recover her). Other recurring gures
in Rilkes poems are angels, roses and a character of a
poet and his creative work.
Rilke often worked with metaphors, metonymy and
contradictions (e.g. in his epitaph, the rose is a symbol
of sleep rose petals are reminiscent of closed eyelids).
Rilkes little-known 1898 poem, Visions of Christ
depicted Mary Magdalene as the mother to Jesus
child.[33][34]

Letters to a Young Poet, cover of the 1934 edition

See also: Letters to a Young Poet

In 1929, a minor writer Franz Xaver Kappus (1883
1966), published a collection of ten letters that Rilke had
written to him when he was a 19-year old ocer cadet
studying at the Theresian Military Academy in Wiener
Neustadt. The young Kappus wrote to Rilke, who had
also attended the academy, between 1902 and 1908 when
he was uncertain about his future career as a military ofcer or as a poet. Initially, he sought Rilkes advice as
to the quality of his poetry, and whether he ought to pursue writing as a career. While he declined to comment
on Kappuss writings, Rilke advised Kappus on how a
poet should feel, love, and seek truth in trying to understand and experience the world around him and engage
the world of art. These letters oer insight into the ideas
and themes that appear in Rilkes poetry and his working
process. Further, these letters were written during a key
period of Rilkes early artistic development after his rep-

Quoting Susan Haskins: It was Rilkes explicit belief that

Christ was not divine, was entirely human, and deied
only on Calvary, expressed in an unpublished poem of
1893, and referred to in other poems of the same period,
which allowed him to portray Christs love for Mary Magdalen, though remarkable, as entirely human.[35]

3.1 Legacy
In the United States, Rilke is one of the more popular, best-selling poetsalong with 13th-century Su
mystic Rumi (12071273), and 20th-century LebaneseAmerican poet Khalil Gibran (18831931).[8] In popular culture, Rilke is frequently quoted or referenced in
television programs, motion pictures, music and other
works when these works discuss the subject of love or
angels.[36] Because of his work being described as mystical, Rilkes works have also been appropriated for use by
the New Age community and in self-help books.[4] Rilke
has been reinterpreted as a master who can lead us to a
more fullled and less anxious life.[5][37]

4 WORKS

4.2 Volumes of poetry

Leben und Lieder (Life and Songs) (1894)
Larenopfer (Lares' Sacrice) (1895)
Traumgekrnt (Dream-Crowned) (1897)
Advent (Advent) (1898)
Das Stunden-Buch (The Book of Hours)
Das Buch vom mnchischen Leben (The Book
of Monastic Life) (1899)
Das Buch von der Pilgerschaft (The Book of
Pilgrimage) (1901)
Geldbaum (1901)
Das Buch von der Armut und vom Tode (The
Book of Poverty and Death) (1903)
Das Buch der Bilder (The Book of Images) (4 parts,
19021906)
Neue Gedichte (New Poems) (1907)
A portrait of Rilke painted two years after his death by Leonid
Pasternak

Duineser Elegien (Duino Elegies) (1922)

Sonette an Orpheus (Sonnets to Orpheus) (1922)

Rilke: New Poems (Copper Canyon Press, 2013)

(bilingual edition, translated by Joseph Cadora)
Rilkes work, and specically, the Duino Elegies have
been claimed as a deep inuence by several poets and writers, including Galway Kinnell,[38] Sidney
Keyes,[39][40] Stephen Spender,[22] Robert Bly,[22][41] W. 4.3 Prose collections
S. Merwin,[42] John Ashbery,[43] novelist Thomas Pyn Geschichten vom Lieben Gott (Stories of God) (Colchon[44] and philosophers Ludwig Wittgenstein[45] and
lection of tales, 1900)
[46][47]
Hans-Georg Gadamer.
British poet W. H. Auden
(19071973) has been described as Rilkes most inu Auguste Rodin (1903)
ential English disciple and he frequently paid homage
to him or used the imagery of angels in his work.[48]
Die Weise von Liebe und Tod des Cornets Christoph
Rilke (The Lay of the Love and Death of Cornet
Christoph Rilke) (Lyric story, 1906)

Works

4.1

Die Aufzeichnungen des Malte Laurids Brigge (The

Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge) (Novel, 1910)

Complete works
4.4 Letters

Rainer Maria Rilke, Smtliche Werke in 12 Bnden (Complete Works in 12 Volumes), published Collected letters
by Rilke Archive in association with Ruth Sieber Gesammelte Briefe in sechs Bnden (Collected Letters
Rilke, edited by Ernst Zinn. Frankfurt am Main
in Six Volumes), published by Ruth Sieber-Rilke and
(1976)
Carl Sieber. Leipzig (19361939)
Rainer Maria Rilke, Werke (Works). Annotated edition in four volumes with supplementary fth volume, published by Manfred Engel, Ulrich Flleborn,
Dorothea Lauterbach, Horst Nalewski and August
Stahl. Frankfurt am Main and Leipzig (1996 and
2003)

Briefe (Letters), published by the Rilke Archive in

Weimar. Two volumes, Wiesbaden (1950, reprinted
1987 in single volume).
Briefe in Zwei Bnden (Letters in Two Volumes)
(Horst Nalewski, Frankfurt and Leipzig, 1991)

6.1

Notes

Other volumes of letters

Briefe an Auguste Rodin (Insel Verlag, 1928)
Briefwechsel mit Marie von Thurn und Taxis, two
volumes, edited by Ernst Zinn with a forward by
Rudolf Kassner (Editions Max Niehans, 1954)
Briefwechsel mit Thankmar von Mnchhausen 1913
bis 1925 (Suhrkamp Insel Verlag, 2004)
Briefwechsel mit Rolf von Ungern-Sternberg und
weitere Dokumente zur bertragung der Stances von
Jean Moras (Suhrkamp Insel Verlag, 2002)

See also
Baladine Klossowska
Rainer Maria Rilke Foundation in Sierre, Switzerland

6
6.1

References
Notes

[7] Komar, Kathleen L. Rethinking Rilkes Duisiner Elegien

at the End of the Millennium in Metzger, Erika A.,
A Companion to the Works of Rainer Maria Rilke
(Rochester, New York: Camden House, 2004), 189.
[8] Komar, Kathleen L. Rilke in America: A Poet ReCreated in Heep, Hartmut (editor). Unreading Rilke:
Unorthodox Approaches to a Cultural Myth (New York:
Peter Lang, 2000), pp. 15578.
[9] Life of a Poet: Rainer Maria Rilke at www.
washingtonpost.com
[10] Life of a Poet: Rainer Maria Rilke by Ralph Freedman, Northwestern University Press, 1996, ISBN 0-81011543-3, p. 36.
[11] Arana, R. Victoria (2008). The Facts on File Companion
to World Poetry: 1900 to the Present. Infobase. p. 377.
ISBN 978-0-8160-6457-1.
[12] Anna A. Tavis. Rilkes Russia: A Cultural Encounter.
Northwestern University Press, 1997. ISBN 0-81011466-6. p. 1.
[13] Life of a Poet: Rainer Maria Rilke by Ralph Freedman, Northwestern University Press, 1996, ISBN 0-81011543-3, p. 505
[14] R. M. Rilke: Music as Metaphor
[15] Photo and description. Picture-poems.com. Retrieved
2012-06-07.

[1] Biography: Rainer Maria Rilke 18751926 on the Poetry

Foundation website. Retrieved 2 February 2013.

[16] Rainer Maria Rilke: a brief biographical overview.

Picture-poems.com. Retrieved 2012-06-07.

[2] See Mller, Hans Rudolf. Rainer Maria Rilke als Mystiker: Bekenntnis und Lebensdeutung in Rilkes Dichtungen (Berlin: Furche 1935). See also Stanley, Patricia
H. Rilkes Duino Elegies: An Alternative Approach to
the Study of Mysticism in Heep, Hartmut (editor). Unreading Rilke: Unorthodox Approaches to a Cultural Myth
(New York: Peter Lang 2000).

[17] Rilke-Briefe: Nirgends ein Fhrer (German), Der

Spiegel (21/1957). 22 May 1957. Retrieved 28 January
2014.

[3] Freedman, Ralph. Life of a Poet: Rainer Maria Rilke

(Chicago: Northwestern University Press, 1998), p. 515.
[4] Komar, Kathleen L. Rilke: Metaphysics in a New
Age in Bauschinger, Sigrid and Cocalis, Susan.
Rilke-Rezeptionen: Rilke Reconsidered (Tbingen/Basel:
Franke, 1995), p. 155-69. Rilke reinterpreted as a
master who can lead us to a more fullled and less
anxious life.
[5] Komar, Kathleen L. Rethinking Rilkes Duisiner Elegien
at the End of the Millennium in Metzger, Erika A.
A Companion to the Works of Rainer Maria Rilke
(Rochester, New York: Camden House, 2004), pp. 188
89.
[6] See also: Mood, John. 'Rilke on Love and Other Difculties (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1975);
and a book released by Rilkes own publisher Insel Verlag,
Hauschild, Vera (ed.), Rilke fr Gestrete (Frankfurt am
Main: Insel-Verlag, 1998).

[18] Elegien gegen die Angsttrume des Alltags by Hellmuth

Karasek (German). Der Spiegel (47/1981). 11 November
1981; Karasek calls Rilke a friend of the Fascists.
[19] Rainer Maria Rilke, Lettres Milanaises 19211926.
Edited by Rene Lang. Paris: Librairie Plon, 1956
[20] Excerpt from Reading Rilke Reections on the Problems of Translation by William H. Gass (1999) ISBN
0-375-40312-4; featured in The New York Times 2000.
Accessed 18 August 2010 (subscription required)
[21] Hoeniger, F. David. Symbolism and Pattern in Rilkes
Duino Elegies in German Life and Letters, Volume 3, Issue 4 (July 1950), pp. 27183.
[22] Perlo, Marjorie, Reading Gass Reading Rilke in Parnassus: Poetry in Review, Volume 25, Number 1/2 (2001).
[23] Gass, William H. Reading Rilke: Reections on the Problems of Translation (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1999).
[24] Rilke, Rainer Maria. First Elegy from Duino Elegies,
line 1.
[25] Rilke, Rainer Maria. First Elegy from Duino Elegies,
line 6; Second Elegy, line 1.

REFERENCES

[26] Dash, Bibhudutt. In the Matrix of the Divine: Approaches to Godhead in Rilkes Duino Elegies and Tennysons In Memoriam in Language in India Volume 11
(11 November 2011), pp. 35571.

[43] Perlo, Marjorie. Transparent Selves: The Poetry

of John Ashbery and Frank OHara, in Yearbook of
English Studies: American Literature Special Number
8(1978):171-96, at p. 175.

[27] Freedman, Ralph. Life of a Poet: Rainer Maria

Rilke (Evanston, Illinois: Northwestern University Press,
1998), p. 481.

[44] Robey, Christopher J. The Rainbow Bridge: On Pynchons

Use of Wittgenstein and Rilke (Olean, New York: St.
Bonaventure University, 1982).

[28] Sword, Helen. Engendering Inspiration: Visionary Strategies in Rilke, Lawrence, and H.D. (Ann Arbor, Michigan:
University of Michigan Press, 1995), pp. 6870.

[45] Perlo, Marjorie. Wittgensteins Ladder: Poetic Language

and the Strangeness of the Ordinary (Chicago: University
of Chicago Press, 1996), passim. which points towards
Wittgensteins generous nancial gifts to Rilke among several Austrian artists, although he prefer Rilkes earlier
works and was distressed by his post-war writings.

[29] Letter to Gertrud Ouckama Knoop, dated 20 April 1923;

quoted in Snow, Edward, trans. and ed., Sonnets to Orpheus by Rainer Maria Rilke, bilingual edition, New York:
North Point Press, 2004.
[30] Sonette an Orpheus, Erste Teil, XIX, v.8: Gott mit der
Leier
[31] Freedman, Ralph. Das Stunden-Buch and Das Buch der
Bilder: Harbingers of Rilkes Maturity in Metzger, Erika
A. and Metzger, Michael M. (editors). A Companion to
the Works of Rainer Maria Rilke. (Rochester, New York:
Camden House Publishing, 2001), 9092.
[32] Selected Poems of Rainer Maria Rilke, ed. and trans.
Robert Bly New York, 1981.
[33] Liza Knapp, Tsvetaevas Marine Mary Magdalene (The
Slavic and East European Journal, Volume 43, Number 4;
Winter, 1999).
[34] Susan Haskins, Mary Magdalen: Myth and Metaphor
(Riverhead Trade; 1995).

[46] Gadamer analyzed many of Rilkes themes and symbols. See: Gadamer, Hans-Georg. Mythopoietische
Umkehrung im Rilkes Duisener Elegien" in Gesammelten
Werke, Band 9: sthetik und Poetik II Hermenutik im Vollzug (Tbingen: J. C. B. Mohr, 1993), pp. 289305.
[47] Dworick, Stephanie. In the Company of Rilke: Why a
20th-Century Visionary Poet Speaks So Eloquently to 21stCentury Readers (New York: Penguin, 2011).
[48] Cohn, Stephen (translator). Introduction in Rilke,
Rainer Maria. Duino Elegies: A Bilingual Edition
(Evanston, Illinois: Northwestern University Press,
1989), pp. 1718. Quote: Auden, Rilkes most inuential English disciple, frequently paid homage to him, as
in these lines which tell of the Elegies and of their dicult
and chancy genesis...

[35] Susan Haskins, Mary Magdalen: Myth and Metaphor, p.

361 (HarperCollins; 1993 ISBN 0-00-215535-4).

6.2 Further reading

[36] Komar, Kathleen L. Rethinking Rilkes Duisiner Elegien

at the End of the Millennium in Metzger, Erika A.
A Companion to the Works of Rainer Maria Rilke
(Rochester, New York: Camden House, 2004), p. 189.

6.2.1 Biographies

[37] See also: Mood, John. Rilke on Love and Other Diculties (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1975);
and a book released by Rilkes own publisher Insel Verlag, Hauschild, Vera (editor). Rilke fr Gestrete (Frankfurt am Main: Insel-Verlag, 1998).
[38] Malecka, Katarzyna. Death in the Works of Galway Kinnell (Amherst, New York: Cambria Press, 2008), passim.
[39] Guenther, John. Sidney Keyes: A Biographical Enquiry
(London: London Magazine Editions, 1967), p. 153.
[40] Self-Elegy: Keith Douglas and Sidney Keyes (Chapter
9) in Kendall, Tim. Modern English War Poetry (Oxford:
Oxford University Press, 2006).
[41] Metzger, Erika A. and Metzger, Michael M. Introduction in A Companion to the Works of Rainer Maria Rilke
(Rochester, New York: Camden House, 2004), p. 8.
[42] Perlo, Marjorie. Apocalypse Then: Merwin and the
Sorrows of Literary History in Nelson, Cary and Folsom,
Ed (eds). W. S. Merwin: Essays on the Poetry (University
of Illinois, 1987), p. 144.

Freedman, Ralph, Life of a Poet: Rainer Maria

Rilke, New York, 1996.
Prater, Donald, A Ringing Glass: The Life of Rainer
Maria Rilke, Oxford University Press, 1994.
Tapper, Mirjam, Resa med Rilke, Mita bokfrlag.
Torgersen, Eric, Dear Friend: Rainer Maria Rilke
and Paula Modersohn-Becker, Northwestern University Press, 1998.
6.2.2 Critical studies
Engel, Manfred and Lauterbach, Dorothea (ed.),
Rilke Handbuch: Leben Werk Wirkung, Stuttgart:
Metzler, 2004.
Erika, A and Metzger, Michael, A Companion to the
Works of Rainer Maria Rilke, Rochester, 2001.
Gass, William H. Reading Rilke: Reections on the
Problems of Translation, Alfred A. Knopf, 2000.

9
Goldsmith, Ulrich, ed., Rainer Maria Rilke, a verse
concordance to his complete lyrical poetry. Leeds:
W. S. Maney, 1980.
Hutchinson, Ben. Rilkes Poetics of Becoming, Oxford: Legenda, 2006.
Leeder, Karen, and Robert Vilain (eds), The Cambridge Companion to Rilke. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 2010. ISBN 978-0-521-70508-0
Mood, John, A New Reading of Rilkes Elegies":
Arming the Unity of life-and-death Lewiston,
NY: Edwin Mellen Press, 2009. ISBN 978-0-77343864-4.
Numerous contributors, A Reconsideration of
Rainer Maria Rilke, Agenda poetry magazine, vol.
42 nos. 34, 2007. ISBN 978-0-902400-83-2.
Pechota Vuilleumier, Cornelia, Heim und Unheimlichkeit bei Rainer Maria Rilke und Lou AndreasSalom. Literarische Wechselwirkungen. Olms,
Hildesheim, 2010. ISBN 978-3-487-14252-4
Ryan, Judith. Rilke, Modernism, and Poetic Tradition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
1999.
Schwarz, Egon, Poetry and Politics in the Works of
Rainer Maria Rilke. Frederick Ungar, 1981. ISBN
978-0-8044-2811-8.

External links
Publications by and about Rainer Maria Rilke in the
catalogue Helveticat of the Swiss National Library
Literary estate of Rainer Maria Rilke in the archive
database HelveticArchives of the Swiss National Library
Media related to Rainer Maria Rilke at Wikimedia
Commons
Works by or about Rainer Maria Rilke in libraries
(WorldCat catalog)
Rainer Maria Rilke, Prole at Poets.org
International Rilke Society (German)
Panther - English Translation

10

8 TEXT AND IMAGE SOURCES, CONTRIBUTORS, AND LICENSES

Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses

8.1

Text

Rainer Maria Rilke Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rainer%20Maria%20Rilke?oldid=632956810 Contributors: Magnus Manske,

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George Ho, Jwillbur, Stevenmitchell, Tsop, Mytwocents, Tapered, Maelnuneb, Frailgesture, Curly Turkey, Maxwellsteer, SashatoBot,
Esrever, Nareek, John, Michael Bednarek, Peter Horn, Liddell, Christian Roess, Ptelea, Dekaels, Jetman, Shoeofdeath, GiantSnowman,
WolfgangFaber, Szfski, Vaughan Pratt, ShelfSkewed, Cutting Edge, Icarus of old, Cydebot, Aristophanes68, William Wiltshire, Daniel J.
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Dr Christopher Heathcote, Eric.teusink, Deor, VolkovBot, John mood, Lestrygonian, TXiKiBoT, Mercurywoodrose, GroveGuy, Vipinhari,
Rei-bot, Finnoah, Absalom89, Laurajoey, Leafyplant, Wassermann, Brandon Christopher, Ezgeta, Djgrefrath, Timsmind, Thomasmotion,
Richardkallen, Jmood, SalomonCeb, SieBot, BotMultichill, Kuebiko, Monegasque, Polbot, Hraharu, Kumioko (renamed), ZenHopper, Eebahgum, Wfgh66, Apuldram, ClueBot, Allenhand, Hutcher, Metapen, All Hallows Wraith, Drmies, TheOldJacobite, Eklir, DragonyDC,
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Spitre, Ajcheema, Good Olfactory, Ozarkhighlands, Addbot, Wran, Smetanahue, Patrickah, Castle229, Rich jj, Elvisf16, MrOllie, Mnmazur, AtheWeatherman, Sindinero, Luckas-bot, Yobot, Fraggle81, Amirobot, Kku salerno, Nallimbot, AnomieBOT, Werunom, Jim1138,
Wilhelminaslater717, RCFrancis, ArthurBot, LilHelpa, SophiaKD, Xqbot, Daliesque, Omnipaedista, Yogurtyurt, Oaktree19, Thepue,
Anna Roy, Bozman78, Sineokov, Yeshua Tolle, AstaBOTh15, Tomcat7, RedBot, Lovingwhatis, MilCivHR, Jauhienij, Ackermanle, Lotje,
Aventureworks, Pensativa, Boz78, Thelema12, Chris4877, John Robert Taylor, Sattvicus, Allgoodmatt, Contre-boutant-ex, John of Reading, WikitanvirBot, Carlotm, 2fennario, Solarra, Ragmah, Mpaix, Heleneannette, Mjbmrbot, Paul Brussel, MichelleSkylark, ClueBot NG,
Helpful Pixie Bot, Wikitonykline, MickeyDonald, Alainjoseph, Jepe-BP1, FilizBrooks, Hauen, RGloucester, Duesenberg59, Khazar2,
Dexbot, SantoshBot, ColonelHenry, Annemariesk, 509Bromosexual253, Refusecollection, Melonkelon, AmericanLemming, Sarah Joy
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