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René Karl Wilhelm Johann Josef Maria Rilke (4 December 1875 – 29 December 1926), known as Rainer Maria Rilke, was an Austrian poet and novelist. Acclaimed as an
idiosyncratic An idiosyncrasy is a unique feature of something. The term is often used to express peculiarity. Etymology The term "idiosyncrasy" originates from Greek ', "a peculiar temperament, habit of body" (from ', "one's own", ', "with" and ', "blend ...
and expressive poet, he is widely recognized as a significant writer in the German language.Biography: Rainer Maria Rilke 1875–1926
Poetry Foundation website. Retrieved 2 February 2013.
His work is viewed by critics and scholars as possessing undertones of
mysticism Mysticism is popularly known as becoming one with God or the Absolute (philosophy), Absolute, but may refer to any kind of Religious ecstasy, ecstasy or altered state of consciousness which is given a religious or Spirituality, spiritual meani ...
, exploring themes of subjective experience and disbelief. His writings include one novel, several collections of poetry, several volumes of correspondence and a few early novellas. Rilke traveled extensively throughout Europe, finally settling in Switzerland, which provided the inspiration for many of his poems. While Rilke is best known for his contributions to German literature, he also wrote in French. Among English-language readers, his best-known works include two poetry collections: ''
Duino Elegies The ''Duino Elegies'' () are a collection of ten elegy, elegies written by the Bohemian-Austrians, Austrian poet Rainer Maria Rilke. He was then "widely recognized as one of the most lyrically intense German-language poets", and began the eleg ...
'' (') and '' Sonnets to Orpheus'' ('), a semi-autobiographical novel ''
The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge ''The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge'', first published as ''The Journal of My Other Self'',Mary D. Herter Norton, M. D. Herter Norton (tr.). New York: W. W. Norton, 1949, 1992. Translator's Foreword, p. 8. is a 1910 novel by Austrian poet Ra ...
'' ('), and a collection of ten letters published posthumously ''
Letters to a Young Poet ''Letters to a Young Poet'' (original title, in German: ''Briefe an einen jungen Dichter'') is a collection of ten letters written by the Bohemian-Austrian poet Rainer Maria Rilke (1875–1926) to Franz Xaver Kappus (1883–1966), a 19-year- ...
'' ('). In the later 20th century, his work found new audiences in citations by
self-help Self-help or self-improvement is "a focus on self-guided, in contrast to professionally guided, efforts to cope with life problems" —economically, physically, intellectually, or emotionally—often with a substantial psychological basis. When ...
authorsKomar, Kathleen L. "Rilke: Metaphysics in a New Age" in Bauschinger, Sigrid and Cocalis, Susan. ''Rilke-Rezeptionen: Rilke Reconsidered'' (Tübingen/Basel: Franke, 1995), pp. 155–169. Rilke reinterpreted "as a master who can lead us to a more fulfilled and less anxious life".Komar, Kathleen L. "Rethinking Rilke's ''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. 188–189. and frequent quotations in television shows, books and motion pictures.


Biography


Early life (1875–1896)

He was born René Karl Wilhelm Johann Josef Maria Rilke in
Prague Prague ( ; ) is the capital and List of cities and towns in the Czech Republic, largest city of the Czech Republic and the historical capital of Bohemia. Prague, located on the Vltava River, has a population of about 1.4 million, while its P ...
, capital of
Kingdom of Bohemia The Kingdom of Bohemia (), sometimes referenced in English literature as the Czech Kingdom, was a History of the Czech lands in the High Middle Ages, medieval and History of the Czech lands, early modern monarchy in Central Europe. It was the pr ...
(then ruled by
Austria-Hungary Austria-Hungary, also referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Dual Monarchy or the Habsburg Monarchy, was a multi-national constitutional monarchy in Central Europe#Before World War I, Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. A military ...
, now capital of the Czech Republic). His childhood and youth in Prague were not always happy. His father, Josef Rilke (1838–1906), found employment as a railway official after an unsuccessful military career. His mother, Sophie ("Phia") Entz (1851–1931), was from a well-to-do family in Prague, the Entz-Kinzelbergers, who lived at Herrengasse (Panská) 8, where René spent many of his early years. The relationship between Phia and her only son was coloured by her mourning for an earlier infant daughter who died within one week. During Rilke's early years, Phia acted as if she sought to recover the lost daughter by treating Rilke as if he were a girl. According to Rilke, he had to wear "fine clothes" and "was a plaything or his mother like a big doll". His parents' marriage ended in 1884. His parents enrolled the poetically and artistically talented youth in a military academy in
Sankt Pölten Sankt Pölten (; Central Bavarian: ''St. Pödn''), mostly abbreviated to the official name St. Pölten, is the capital and largest city of the States of Austria, State of Lower Austria in northeast Austria, with 55,538 inhabitants as of 1 Januar ...
, Lower Austria. He attended classes from 1886 until 1891, but left due to illness. He then moved to
Linz Linz (Pronunciation: , ; ) is the capital of Upper Austria and List of cities and towns in Austria, third-largest city in Austria. Located on the river Danube, the city is in the far north of Austria, south of the border with the Czech Repub ...
, and entered a trade school. During this time he lived with Hans Drouot (publisher and owner of the printing and publishing company Jos. Feichtingers Erben) at Graben 19 on the 3rd floor. Expelled in May 1892, the 16-year-old returned to Prague, where, for three years, he was tutored for the university entrance exam, which he passed in 1895. He took classes in literature, art history, and philosophy in
Prague Prague ( ; ) is the capital and List of cities and towns in the Czech Republic, largest city of the Czech Republic and the historical capital of Bohemia. Prague, located on the Vltava River, has a population of about 1.4 million, while its P ...
, until 1896 when he left school and moved to Munich.


Munich and Saint Petersburg

Rilke met and fell in love with the widely travelled and intellectual woman of letters
Lou Andreas-Salomé Lou Andreas-Salomé (born either Louise von Salomé or Luíza Gustavovna Salomé or Lioulia von Salomé, ; 12 February 1861 – 5 February 1937) was a Russian-born psychoanalyst and a well-traveled author, narrator, and essayist from a French Hu ...
in 1897 in Munich. He changed his first name from "René" to "Rainer" at Salomé's urging because she thought that name to be more masculine, forceful and Germanic. His relationship with this married woman, with whom he undertook two extensive trips to Russia, lasted until 1900. Even after their separation, Salomé continued to be Rilke's most important confidante until the end of his life. Having trained from 1912 to 1913 as a
psychoanalyst PsychoanalysisFrom Greek: and is a set of theories and techniques of research to discover unconscious processes and their influence on conscious thought, emotion and behaviour. Based on dream interpretation, psychoanalysis is also a talk th ...
with
Sigmund Freud Sigmund Freud ( ; ; born Sigismund Schlomo Freud; 6 May 1856 – 23 September 1939) was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis, a clinical method for evaluating and treating psychopathology, pathologies seen as originating fro ...
, she shared her knowledge of psychoanalysis with Rilke. In 1898, Rilke undertook a journey of several weeks to Italy. The following year he travelled with Lou and her husband,
Friedrich Carl Andreas Friedrich Carl Andreas (14 April 1846 in Batavia – 4 October 1930 in Göttingen) was an orientalist of German, Malay, and Armenian parentage (descendant of the Bagratuni royal family). He was the husband of psychoanalyst Lou Andreas-Sa ...
, to Moscow where he met the novelist
Leo Tolstoy Count Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy Tolstoy pronounced his first name as , which corresponds to the romanization ''Lyov''. () (; ,Throughout Tolstoy's whole life, his name was written as using Reforms of Russian orthography#The post-revolution re ...
. Between May and August 1900, a second journey to Russia, accompanied only by Lou, again took him to Moscow and
Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...
, where he met the family of
Boris Pasternak Boris Leonidovich Pasternak (30 May 1960) was a Russian and Soviet poet, novelist, composer, and literary translator. Composed in 1917, Pasternak's first book of poems, ''My Sister, Life'', was published in Berlin in 1922 and soon became an imp ...
and Spiridon Drozhzhin, a peasant poet. Author Anna A. Tavis cites the cultures of Bohemia and Russia as the key influences on Rilke's poetry and consciousness. In 1900, Rilke stayed at the artists' colony at
Worpswede Worpswede (Northern Low Saxon: ''Worpsweed'') is a municipality in the Osterholz-Scharmbeck, district of Osterholz, in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is situated in the Teufelsmoor, northeast of Bremen (city), Bremen. The small town itself is located n ...
. (Later, his portrait would be painted by the proto-expressionist Paula Modersohn-Becker, whom he got to know at Worpswede.) It was here that he got to know the sculptor Clara Westhoff, whom he married the following year. Their daughter Ruth (1901–1972) was born in December 1901.


Paris (1902–1910)

In the summer of 1902, Rilke left home and travelled to Paris to write a
monograph A monograph is generally a long-form work on one (usually scholarly) subject, or one aspect of a subject, typically created by a single author or artist (or, sometimes, by two or more authors). Traditionally it is in written form and published a ...
on the sculptor
Auguste Rodin François Auguste René Rodin (; ; 12 November 184017 November 1917) was a French sculptor generally considered the founder of modern sculpture. He was schooled traditionally and took a craftsman-like approach to his work. Rodin possessed a u ...
. Before long his wife left their daughter with her parents and joined Rilke there. The relationship between Rilke and Clara Westhoff continued for the rest of his life; a mutually-agreed-upon effort towards a divorce was bureaucratically hindered by the fact that Rilke was a Catholic, albeit a non-practising one. At first, Rilke had a difficult time in Paris, an experience that he called upon in the first part of his only novel, ''
The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge ''The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge'', first published as ''The Journal of My Other Self'',Mary D. Herter Norton, M. D. Herter Norton (tr.). New York: W. W. Norton, 1949, 1992. Translator's Foreword, p. 8. is a 1910 novel by Austrian poet Ra ...
''. At the same time his encounter with modernism was very stimulating: Rilke became deeply involved with the sculpture of Rodin and then the work of
Paul Cézanne Paul Cézanne ( , , ; ; ; 19 January 1839 – 22 October 1906) was a French Post-Impressionism, Post-Impressionist painter whose work introduced new modes of representation, influenced avant-garde artistic movements of the early 20th century a ...
. For a time, he acted as Rodin's secretary, also lecturing and writing a long essay on Rodin and his work. Rodin taught him the value of objective observation and, under this influence, 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 Rilke's rejuvenated artistic vision. During these years, Paris increasingly became the writer's main residence. The most important works of the Paris period were ''Neue 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 Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge'', started in 1904 and completed in January 1910. During the later part of this decade, Rilke spent extended periods in
Ronda Ronda () is a Municipalities in Spain, municipality of Spain belonging to the province of Málaga, within the autonomous community of Andalusia. Its population is about 35,000. Ronda is known for its cliffside location and a deep canyon that ca ...
, the famous bullfighting centre in southern Spain, where he kept a permanent room at the Hotel Reina Victoria from December 1912 to February 1913.


Duino and the First World War (1911–1919)

Between October 1911 and May 1912, Rilke stayed at the Castle
Duino Duino (, ) is today a seaside resort on the northern Adriatic Sea, Adriatic coast. It is a ''hamlet (place), hamlet'' of Duino-Aurisina, a municipality (''comune'') of the Friuli–Venezia Giulia region of northeastern Italy. The settlement, pict ...
, near
Trieste Trieste ( , ; ) is a city and seaport in northeastern Italy. It is the capital and largest city of the Regions of Italy#Autonomous regions with special statute, autonomous region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia, as well as of the Province of Trieste, ...
, home of Princess Marie of
Thurn und Taxis The Princely House of Thurn and Taxis (, ) is a family of German nobility that is part of the ''Briefadel''. It was a key player in the mail, postal services in Europe during the 16th century, until the end of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806, and ...
. There, in 1912, he began the poem cycle called the ''
Duino Elegies The ''Duino Elegies'' () are a collection of ten elegy, elegies written by the Bohemian-Austrians, Austrian poet Rainer Maria Rilke. He was then "widely recognized as one of the most lyrically intense German-language poets", and began the eleg ...
'', which would remain unfinished for a decade because of a long-lasting creativity crisis. Rilke had developed an admiration for
El Greco Doménikos Theotokópoulos (, ; 1 October 1541 7 April 1614), most widely known as El Greco (; "The Greek"), was a Greek painter, sculptor and architect of the Spanish Renaissance, regarded as one of the greatest artists of all time. ...
as early as 1908, so he visited Toledo during the winter of 1912/13 to see his paintings. It has been suggested that El Greco's manner of depicting angels influenced the conception of the angel in the ''Duino Elegies''. The outbreak of
World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
surprised Rilke during a stay in Germany. He was unable to return to Paris, where his property was confiscated and auctioned. He spent the greater part of the war in Munich. From 1914 to 1916 he had a turbulent affair with the painter
Lou Albert-Lasard Lou Albert-Lasard (1885 in Metz – July 1969 in Paris) was an Expressionist painter. She was born in 1885 in Metz (then part of Germany) to a Jewish banking family. From 1908 until 1914, she studied art in Munich, where she and her sister, ...
. Rilke was called up at the beginning of 1916 and had to undertake basic training in Vienna. Influential friends interceded on his behalf – he was transferred to the War Records Office and discharged from the military on 9 June 1916. He returned to Munich, interrupted by a stay at manor in Westphalia. The traumatic experience of military service, a reminder of the horrors of the military academy, almost completely silenced him as a poet.


Switzerland and Muzot (1919–1926)

On 11 June 1919, Rilke travelled from Munich to Switzerland. He met Polish-German painter Baladine Klossowska, with whom he was in a relationship to his death in 1926. 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 affordable place to live proved to be very difficult. Among other places, Rilke lived in Soglio,
Locarno Locarno (; ; Ticinese dialect, Ticinese: ; formerly in ) is a southern Switzerland, Swiss List of towns in Switzerland, town and Municipalities of Switzerland, municipality in the district Locarno (district), Locarno (of which it is the capita ...
and Berg am Irchel. It was only in mid-1921 that he was able to find a permanent residence in the Château 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 this period, Rilke rapidly wrote both parts of the poem cycle '' Sonnets to Orpheus'' containing 55 entire sonnets. Together, these two have often been taken as constituting the high points of Rilke's work. In May 1922, Rilke's patron Werner Reinhart bought and renovated Muzot so that Rilke could live there rent-free. During this time, Reinhart introduced Rilke to his protégée, the Australian violinist Alma Moodie. 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 Johann Sebastian Bach (German: �joːhan zeˈbasti̯an baχ ( – 28 July 1750) was a German composer and musician of the late Baroque period. He is known for his prolific output across a variety of instruments and forms, including the or ...
! Muzot has received its musical christening..." From 1923 on, Rilke increasingly struggled with health problems that necessitated many long stays at a
sanatorium A sanatorium (from Latin '' sānāre'' 'to heal'), also sanitarium or sanitorium, is a historic name for a specialised hospital for the treatment of specific diseases, related ailments, and convalescence. Sanatoriums are often in a health ...
in
Territet Territet (Montreux) is a locality which is part of the Montreux commune, in the Vaud canton, Switzerland. Geography Territet is located between the city center of Montreux and the village of Veytaux, within the municipality of Montreux, o ...
near
Montreux Montreux (, ; ; ) is a Municipalities of Switzerland, Swiss municipality and List of towns in Switzerland, town on the shoreline of Lake Geneva at the foot of the Swiss Alps, Alps. It belongs to the Riviera-Pays-d'Enhaut (district), Riviera-Pays ...
on
Lake Geneva Lake Geneva is a deep lake on the north side of the Alps, shared between Switzerland and France. It is one of the List of largest lakes of Europe, largest lakes in Western Europe and the largest on the course of the Rhône. Sixty percent () ...
. 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 his abundant lyrical work in French. His book of French poems ''Vergers'' was published in 1926. In 1924, began writing poems to Rilke, who wrote back with approximately 50 poems of his own and called her verse a ''Herzlandschaft'' (landscape of the heart). This was the only time Rilke had a productive poetic collaboration throughout all his work. Mitterer visited Rilke in November 1925. In 1950 her ''Correspondence in Verse'' with Rilke was published and received much praise. Rilke supported the
Russian Revolution The Russian Revolution was a period of Political revolution (Trotskyism), political and social revolution, social change in Russian Empire, Russia, starting in 1917. This period saw Russia Dissolution of the Russian Empire, abolish its mona ...
in 1917 as well as the
Bavarian Soviet Republic The Bavarian Soviet Republic (or Bavarian Council Republic), also known as the Munich Soviet Republic (), was a short-lived unrecognised socialist state in Bavaria during the German revolution of 1918–1919. A group of communists and anarchist ...
in 1919. He became friends with Ernst Toller and mourned the deaths of
Rosa Luxemburg Rosa Luxemburg ( ; ; ; born Rozalia Luksenburg; 5 March 1871 – 15 January 1919) was a Polish and naturalised-German revolutionary and Marxist theorist. She was a key figure of the socialist movements in Poland and Germany in the early 20t ...
,
Kurt Eisner Kurt Eisner (; 14 May 1867 21 February 1919)"Kurt Eisner – Encyclopædia Britannica" (biography), ''Encyclopædia Britannica'', 2006, Britannica.com webpageBritannica-KurtEisner. was a German politician, revolutionary, journalist, and theatre c ...
, and Karl Liebknecht. He confided that of the five or six newspapers he read daily, those on the far left came closest to his own opinions. He developed a reputation for supporting left-wing causes and thus, out of fear for his own safety, became more reticent about politics after the Bavarian Republic was crushed by the right-wing
Freikorps (, "Free Corps" or "Volunteer Corps") were irregular German and other European paramilitary volunteer units that existed from the 18th to the early 20th centuries. They effectively fought as mercenaries or private military companies, rega ...
. In January and February 1926, Rilke wrote three letters to the Mussolini-adversary Aurelia Gallarati Scotti in which he praised
Benito Mussolini Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini (29 July 188328 April 1945) was an Italian politician and journalist who, upon assuming office as Prime Minister of Italy, Prime Minister, became the dictator of Fascist Italy from the March on Rome in 1922 un ...
and described fascism as a healing agent.


Death and burial

Shortly before his death, Rilke's illness was diagnosed as
leukemia Leukemia ( also spelled leukaemia; pronounced ) is a group of blood cancers that usually begin in the bone marrow and produce high numbers of abnormal blood cells. These blood cells are not fully developed and are called ''blasts'' or '' ...
. He suffered ulcerous sores in his mouth, pain troubled his stomach and intestines, and he struggled with increasingly low spirits. Open-eyed, he died in the arms of his doctor on 29 December 1926, in the Valmont Sanatorium in Switzerland. He was buried on 2 January 1927, in the Raron cemetery to the west of
Visp Visp (; ; ) is the capital of the district of Visp in the canton of Valais in Switzerland. Geography Visp lies in the Rhône valley, at the confluence of the Vispa and the Rhône, west of Brig-Glis. Visp has an area, , of . Of this a ...
.Excerpt from "Reading Rilke – Reflections on the Problems of Translation"
by William H. Gass (1999) ; featured in ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'' 2000. Accessed 18 August 2010
Rilke had chosen as his own epitaph this poem: Rose, oh reiner Widerspruch, Lust, Niemandes Schlaf zu sein unter soviel Lidern. Rose, o pure contradiction, desire to be no one's sleep beneath so many lids. A myth developed surrounding his death and roses. It was said: "To honour a visitor, the Egyptian beauty Nimet Eloui Bey, 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 affected as well", and so he died.


Writings


''The Panther''

The motion of the bars has made his gaze so tired that it can hold no more. For him there are a thousand bars and behind those bars no world. In soft and silken steps he paces, softly in an ever smaller round, like a dance of power circling a place at whose center a deadened will is found. Only rarely does the curtain of the eye lift up without a sound. Then an image enters, goes through the clenched and silent limbs, to enter the heart and die.
''The Panther'' was an influential poem describing life from the perspective of an animal in a zoo, which focused more on its cage than on humans, one of the first to do so, part of an early counter-movement against anthropomorphic views of animals and nature along with individuals such as
Jakob von Uexküll Jakob may refer to: People * Jakob (given name), including a list of people with the name * Jakob (surname), including a list of people with the name Other * Jakob (band), a New Zealand band, and the title of their 1999 EP * Max Jakob Memorial ...
, a writer of perspectives of creatures such as jellyfish and ticks, a man who he corresponded with, and poet
Hugo von Hofmannsthal Hugo Laurenz August Hofmann von Hofmannsthal (; 1 February 1874 – 15 July 1929) was an Austrian novelist, libretto, librettist, Poetry, poet, Playwdramatist, narrator, and essayist. Early life Hofmannsthal was born in Landstraße, Vienna, th ...
who wrote from the perspective of a man who had language become like 'rotten mushrooms' in his mouth.


''The Book of Hours''

Rilke's three complete cycles of poems that constitute ''The Book of Hours'' (') were published by Insel Verlag in April 1905. These poems explore the Christian search for God and the nature of Prayer, using symbolism from Saint Francis and Rilke's observation of Orthodox Christianity during his travels to Ukraine in the early years of the twentieth century.


''The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge''

Rilke wrote his only novel, ' (translated as ''The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge''), while living in Paris, completing the work in 1910. The narrative takes the form of a rambling novelette filled with poetic language and contains, among other things, a retelling of the prodigal son tale, a striking description of death by illness, an ode to the joys of roaming free during childhood, a chilling description of how people wear false faces with others, and a snarky comment about the weirdness of neighbors. This semi-autobiographical novel adopts the style and technique that became associated with
Expressionism Expressionism is a modernist movement, initially in poetry and painting, originating in Northern Europe around the beginning of the 20th century. Its typical trait is to present the world solely from a subjective perspective, distorting it rad ...
which entered European fiction and art in the early 20th century. He was inspired by Sigbjørn Obstfelder's work ''A Priest's Diary'' and Jens Peter Jacobsen's novel ''Niels Lyhne'' (1880) which traces the fate of an
atheist Atheism, in the broadest sense, is an absence of belief in the existence of deities. Less broadly, atheism is a rejection of the belief that any deities exist. In an even narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there no ...
in a merciless world. Rilke addresses existential themes, profoundly probing the quest for individuality and the significance of death and reflecting on the experience of time as death approaches. He draws considerably on the writings of Nietzsche, whose work he came to know through
Lou Andreas-Salomé Lou Andreas-Salomé (born either Louise von Salomé or Luíza Gustavovna Salomé or Lioulia von Salomé, ; 12 February 1861 – 5 February 1937) was a Russian-born psychoanalyst and a well-traveled author, narrator, and essayist from a French Hu ...
. His work also incorporates impressionistic techniques that were influenced by Cézanne and
Rodin François Auguste René Rodin (; ; 12 November 184017 November 1917) was a French sculptor generally considered the founder of modern sculpture. He was schooled traditionally and took a craftsman-like approach to his work. Rodin possessed a u ...
(to whom Rilke was secretary in 1905–1906). He combines these techniques and motifs to conjure images of mankind's anxiety and alienation in the face of an increasingly scientific, industrial and reified world.


''Duino Elegies''

Rilke began writing the elegies in 1912 while a guest of Princess Marie von Thurn und Taxis (1855–1934) at Duino Castle, near
Trieste Trieste ( , ; ) is a city and seaport in northeastern Italy. It is the capital and largest city of the Regions of Italy#Autonomous regions with special statute, autonomous region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia, as well as of the Province of Trieste, ...
on the
Adriatic Sea The Adriatic Sea () is a body of water separating the Italian Peninsula from the Balkans, Balkan Peninsula. The Adriatic is the northernmost arm of the Mediterranean Sea, extending from the Strait of Otranto (where it connects to the Ionian Se ...
. During this ten-year period, the elegies languished incomplete for long stretches of time as Rilke suffered frequently from severe depression, some of which was caused by the events of
World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
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 storm" – he completed the collection in February 1922 while staying at Château de Muzot in Veyras, in Switzerland's
Rhône The Rhône ( , ; Occitan language, Occitan: ''Ròse''; Franco-Provençal, Arpitan: ''Rôno'') is a major river in France and Switzerland, rising in the Alps and flowing west and south through Lake Geneva and Southeastern France before dischargi ...
Valley. After their publication and his death shortly thereafter, the ''Duino Elegies'' were quickly recognized by critics and scholars as Rilke's most important work.Hoeniger, F. David. "Symbolism and Pattern in Rilke's Duino Elegies" in ''German Life and Letters'', Volume 3, Issue 4 (July 1950), pp. 271–283.Perloff, Marjorie, "Reading Gass Reading Rilke" in ''Parnassus: Poetry in Review'', Volume 25, Number 1/2 (2001). The ''Duino Elegies'' are intensely religious,
mystical Mysticism is popularly known as becoming one with God or the Absolute, but may refer to any kind of ecstasy or altered state of consciousness which is given a religious or spiritual meaning. It may also refer to the attainment of insight ...
poems that weigh beauty and existential suffering. Gass, William H. ''Reading Rilke: Reflections on the Problems of Translation'' (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1999). The poems employ a rich symbolism of
angel An angel is a spiritual (without a physical body), heavenly, or supernatural being, usually humanoid with bird-like wings, often depicted as a messenger or intermediary between God (the transcendent) and humanity (the profane) in variou ...
s and
salvation Salvation (from Latin: ''salvatio'', from ''salva'', 'safe, saved') is the state of being saved or protected from harm or a dire situation. In religion and theology, ''salvation'' generally refers to the deliverance of the soul from sin and its c ...
but not in keeping with typical
Christian A Christian () is a person who follows or adheres to Christianity, a Monotheism, monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus Christ. Christians form the largest religious community in the wo ...
interpretations. Rilke begins the first 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, hörte mich denn aus der Engel Ordnungen?'') and later declares that "every angel is terrifying" (''Jeder Engel ist schrecklich''). While labelling of these poems as "elegies" would typically imply melancholy and
lament A lament or lamentation is a passionate expression of grief, often in music, poetry, or song form. The grief is most often born of regret, or mourning. Laments can also be expressed in a verbal manner in which participants lament about something ...
ation, many passages are marked by their positive energy and "unrestrained enthusiasm". Together, the ''Duino Elegies'' are described as a metamorphosis of Rilke's "
ontological Ontology is the philosophical study of being. It is traditionally understood as the subdiscipline of metaphysics focused on the most general features of reality. As one of the most fundamental concepts, being encompasses all of reality and every ...
torment" and an "impassioned monologue about coming to terms with human existence" discussing themes of "the limitations and insufficiency of the human condition and fractured human consciousness ... man's loneliness, the perfection of the angels, life and death, love and lovers, and the task of the poet".


''Sonnets to Orpheus''

With news of the death of Wera Knoop (1900–1919), his daughter's friend, Rilke was inspired to create and set to work on '' Sonnets to Orpheus''. In 1922, between February 2 and 5, he completed the first section of 26 sonnets. For the next few days, he focused on the ''Duino Elegies'', completing them on the evening of February 11. Immediately thereafter, he returned to work on the ''Sonnets'' and completed the following section of 29 sonnets in less than two weeks. Throughout the ''Sonnets'', Wera is frequently referenced, both directly by name and indirectly in allusions to a "dancer" and the mythical
Eurydice Eurydice (; Ancient Greek: Εὐρυδίκη 'wide justice', classical pronunciation: ) was a character in Greek mythology and the wife of Orpheus, whom Orpheus tried to bring back from the dead with his enchanting music. Etymology Several ...
. Although Rilke claimed that the entire cycle was inspired by Wera, she appears as a character in only one of the poems. He insisted, however, that "Wera's own figure ... nevertheless governs and moves the course of the whole." The sonnets' contents are, as is typical of Rilke, highly metaphorical. The character of Orpheus (whom Rilke refers to as the "god with the lyre") appears several times in the cycle, as do other mythical characters such as
Daphne Daphne (; ; , , ), a figure in Greek mythology, is a naiad, a variety of female nymph associated with fountains, wells, springs, streams, brooks and other bodies of freshwater. There are several versions of the myth in which she appears, but t ...
. There are also biblical allusions, including a reference to
Esau Esau is the elder son of Isaac in the Hebrew Bible. He is mentioned in the Book of Genesis and by the minor prophet, prophets Obadiah and Malachi. The story of Jacob and Esau reflects the historical relationship between Israel and Edom, aiming ...
. Other themes involve animals, peoples of different cultures, and time and death.


''Letters to a Young Poet''

In 1929, writer Franz Xaver Kappus (1883–1966) published a collection of ten letters that (then between 27–32 year old) Rilke had written to him over the course of 6 years, beginning when Kappus was a 19-year-old officer cadet studying at the Theresian Military Academy in Wiener Neustadt, where he had a professor who had taught Rilke at the boarding Military Middleschool (Militär-Unterrealschule) in St.-Pölten over 15 years earlier (from 1886-1891); (before Rilke dropped out of the officer's education after a year in Military highschool). Between 1902 and 1908, the young Kappus had written Rilke when he was uncertain about his future as a military officer or as a poet. Initially he sought Rilke's advice as to the quality of his poetry and whether he ought to pursue writing as a career. While he declined to comment much on Kappus's 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 offer insight into the ideas and themes that appear in Rilke's poetry and his working process and were written during a key period of Rilke's early artistic development after his reputation as a poet began to be established with the publication of parts of '' Das Stunden-Buch'' (''The Book of Hours'') and '' Das Buch der Bilder'' (''The Book of Images'').


Style and themes

Rilke extensively engaged with
metaphor A metaphor is a figure of speech that, for rhetorical effect, directly refers to one thing by mentioning another. It may provide, or obscure, clarity or identify hidden similarities between two different ideas. Metaphors are usually meant to cr ...
s,
metonymy Metonymy () is a figure of speech in which a concept is referred to by the name of something associated with that thing or concept. For example, the word " suit" may refer to a person from groups commonly wearing business attire, such as sales ...
and
contradiction In traditional logic, a contradiction involves a proposition conflicting either with itself or established fact. It is often used as a tool to detect disingenuous beliefs and bias. Illustrating a general tendency in applied logic, Aristotle's ...
s in his poetry and prose to convey disbelief and a crisis of faith. Figures from Greek mythology, such as
Apollo Apollo is one of the Twelve Olympians, Olympian deities in Ancient Greek religion, ancient Greek and Ancient Roman religion, Roman religion and Greek mythology, Greek and Roman mythology. Apollo has been recognized as a god of archery, mu ...
,
Hermes Hermes (; ) is an Olympian deity in ancient Greek religion and mythology considered the herald of the gods. He is also widely considered the protector of human heralds, travelers, thieves, merchants, and orators. He is able to move quic ...
and
Orpheus In Greek mythology, Orpheus (; , classical pronunciation: ) was a Thracians, Thracian bard, legendary musician and prophet. He was also a renowned Ancient Greek poetry, poet and, according to legend, travelled with Jason and the Argonauts in se ...
, recur as motifs in his poems and are depicted in original interpretations that often double as analogies for his experiences. Rilke's poems also feature figures of
angel An angel is a spiritual (without a physical body), heavenly, or supernatural being, usually humanoid with bird-like wings, often depicted as a messenger or intermediary between God (the transcendent) and humanity (the profane) in variou ...
s, famously described in the ''Duino Elegies'' as "terrifying" ('); he also occasionally explored the crisis of his Catholic faith, including in his little-known 1898 poem "Visions of Christ", where he depicted
Mary Magdalene Mary Magdalene (sometimes called Mary of Magdala, or simply the Magdalene or the Madeleine) was a woman who, according to the four canonical gospels, traveled with Jesus as one of his followers and was a witness to crucifixion of Jesus, his cr ...
as the mother of Jesus' child.


Legacy

Rilke is one of the best-selling poets in the United States.Komar, Kathleen L. "Rilke in America: A Poet Re-Created" in Heep, Hartmut (editor). ''Unreading Rilke: Unorthodox Approaches to a Cultural Myth'' (New York: Peter Lang, 2000), pp. 155–178. In popular culture, Rilke is frequently quoted or referenced in television shows, motion pictures, music and other works when these works discuss the subject of love or angels. His work is often described as "mystical" and has been quoted and referenced by
self-help Self-help or self-improvement is "a focus on self-guided, in contrast to professionally guided, efforts to cope with life problems" —economically, physically, intellectually, or emotionally—often with a substantial psychological basis. When ...
authors. Rilke has been reinterpreted "as a master who can lead us to a more fulfilled and less anxious life". Rilke's work has influenced several poets and writers, including William H. Gass, Galway Kinnell, Sidney Keyes,
Stephen Spender Sir Stephen Harold Spender (28 February 1909 – 16 July 1995) was an English poet, novelist and essayist whose work concentrated on themes of social injustice and the class struggle. He was appointed U.S. Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry ...
, Robert Bly, W. S. Merwin,
John Ashbery John Lawrence Ashbery (July 28, 1927 – September 3, 2017) was an American poet and art critic. Ashbery is considered the most influential American poet of his time. Oxford University literary critic John Bayley wrote that Ashbery "sounded, in ...
, novelist
Thomas Pynchon Thomas Ruggles Pynchon Jr. ( , ; born May 8, 1937) is an American novelist noted for his dense and complex novels. His fiction and non-fiction writings encompass a vast array of subject matter, Literary genre, genres and Theme (narrative), th ...
and the philosopher
Hans-Georg Gadamer Hans-Georg Gadamer (; ; 11 February 1900 – 13 March 2002) was a German philosopher of the continental tradition, best known for his 1960 on hermeneutics, '' Truth and Method'' (''Wahrheit und Methode''). Life Family and early life Gad ...
. British poet W. H. Auden (1907–1973) has been described as "Rilke's most influential English disciple" and he frequently "paid homage to him" or used the imagery of angels in his work.Cohn, Stephen (translator). "Introduction" in Rilke, Rainer Maria. ''Duino Elegies: A Bilingual Edition'' (Evanston, Illinois: Northwestern University Press, 1989), pp. 17–18. Quote: "Auden, Rilke's most influential English disciple, frequently paid homage to him, as in these lines which tell of the Elegies and of their difficult and chancy genesis..." The U.S. rock music band Rainer Maria was named after Rilke.


Works


Complete works

* Rainer Maria Rilke, ''Sämtliche Werke in 12 Bänden'' (''Complete Works in 12 Volumes''), published by Rilke Archive in association with Ruth Sieber-Rilke, edited by Ernst Zinn. Frankfurt am Main (1976) * Rainer Maria Rilke, ''Werke'' (''Works''). Annotated edition in four volumes with supplementary fifth volume, published by Manfred Engel, Ulrich Fülleborn, Dorothea Lauterbach, Horst Nalewski and August Stahl. Frankfurt am Main and Leipzig (1996 and 2003)


Volumes of poetry

* ''Leben und Lieder (Life and Songs)'' (1894) * ''Larenopfer (Offerings to the
Lares Lares ( , ; archaic , singular ) were Tutelary deity#Ancient Rome, guardian deities in ancient Roman religion. Their origin is uncertain; they may have been hero-ancestors, guardians of the hearth, fields, boundaries, or fruitfulness, or an ama ...
)'' (1895) * ''Traumgekrönt (Dream-Crowned)'' (1897) * ''Advent (Advent)'' (1898) * ''Das Stunden-Buch ( The Book of Hours)'' ** ''Das Buch vom mönchischen Leben (The Book of Monastic Life)'' (1899) ** ''Das Buch von der Pilgerschaft (The Book of Pilgrimage)'' (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, 1902–1906) * ''Neue Gedichte ( New Poems)'' (1907) * ''Duineser Elegien (
Duino Elegies The ''Duino Elegies'' () are a collection of ten elegy, elegies written by the Bohemian-Austrians, Austrian poet Rainer Maria Rilke. He was then "widely recognized as one of the most lyrically intense German-language poets", and began the eleg ...
)'' (1922) * ''Sonette an Orpheus ( Sonnets to Orpheus)'' (1922)


Prose collections

* ''Geschichten vom Lieben Gott'' (''Stories of God'') (Collection of tales, 1900) * ''Auguste Rodin'' (1903) * '' Die Weise von Liebe und Tod des Cornets Christoph Rilke'' (
The Lay of the Love and Death of Cornet Christoph Rilke
') (Lyric story, 1906) * ''Die Aufzeichnungen des Malte Laurids Brigge'' (''
The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge ''The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge'', first published as ''The Journal of My Other Self'',Mary D. Herter Norton, M. D. Herter Norton (tr.). New York: W. W. Norton, 1949, 1992. Translator's Foreword, p. 8. is a 1910 novel by Austrian poet Ra ...
'') (Novel, 1910)


Letters

Collected letters *''Gesammelte Briefe in sechs Bänden'' (''Collected Letters in Six Volumes''), published by Ruth Sieber-Rilke and Carl Sieber. Leipzig (1936–1939) *''Briefe'' (''Letters''), published by the Rilke Archive in Weimar. Two volumes, Wiesbaden (1950, reprinted 1987 in single volume). *''Briefe in Zwei Bänden'' (''Letters in Two Volumes'') (Horst Nalewski, Frankfurt and Leipzig, 1991) 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 foreword by Rudolf Kassner (Editions Max Niehans, 1954) * ''Briefwechsel mit Thankmar von Münchhausen 1913 bis 1925'' (Suhrkamp Insel Verlag, 2004) * ''Briefwechsel mit Rolf von Ungern-Sternberg und weitere Dokumente zur Übertragung der Stances von Jean Moréas'' (Suhrkamp Insel Verlag, 2002) * ''The Dark Interval – Letters for the Grieving Heart'', edited and translated by (New York: Random House, 2018). *
Noi siamo le api dell’invisibile
', Milano, De Piante Editore, 2022,


See also

* Baladine Klossowska * Notes on the Melody of Things, a posthumous translation of a work by Rilke * Rainer Maria Rilke Foundation in Sierre, Switzerland


Notes


References


Sources

* *


Further reading


Biographies

* Corbett, Rachel, ''You Must Change Your Life: the Story of Rainer Maria Rilke and Auguste Rodin'', New York: W. W. Norton and Company, 2016. *Tapper, Mirjam, ''Resa med Rilke'', Mita bokförlag. *Torgersen, Eric, ''Dear Friend: Rainer Maria Rilke and Paula Modersohn-Becker'', Northwestern University Press, 1998. *Von Thurn und Taxis, Princess Marie, ''The Poet and The Princess: Memories of Rainer Maria Rilke'', Amun Press, 2017


Critical studies

*Chamberlain, Lesley, ''Rilke the last Inward Man'', London: Pushkin Press 2022. *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: Reflections on the Problems of Translation'', Alfred A. Knopf, 2000. *Goldsmith, Ulrich, ed., ''Rainer Maria Rilke, a verse concordance to his complete lyrical poetry''. Leeds: W. S. Maney, 1980. *Hutchinson, Ben. ''Rilke's Poetics of Becoming'', Oxford: Legenda, 2006. *Leeder, Karen, and Robert Vilain (eds), ''The Cambridge Companion to Rilke.'' Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010. *Mood, John, ''A New Reading of Rilke's 'Elegies': Affirming the Unity of 'life-and-death'' Lewiston, New York: Edwin Mellen Press, 2009. . *Numerous contributors, ''A Reconsideration of Rainer Maria Rilke'', ''Agenda'' poetry magazine, vol. 42 nos. 3–4, 2007. . *Pechota Vuilleumier, Cornelia, ''Heim und Unheimlichkeit bei Rainer Maria Rilke und Lou Andreas-Salomé. Literarische Wechselwirkungen''. Olms, Hildesheim, 2010. *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. .


External links


''Rainer Maria Rilke: Letters to a Young Poet'', The first letter

Rainer Rilke and his Poem Black Cat
* * * * *
Rainer Maria Rilke, Profile
at Poets.org
International Rilke Society
*
Translator of Rilke into English, interview
with Joanna Macy (2010 original, 2019 updated: transcript and audio) for OnBeing.org
Poems by Rainer Maria Rilke: a new translation
A new translation by Timothy Watson published on February 28, 2018 {{DEFAULTSORT:Rilke, Rainer Maria 1875 births 1926 deaths 19th-century Austrian male writers 19th-century Austrian poets 20th-century Austrian novelists 20th-century Austrian poets Analysands of Lou Andreas-Salomé Austrian expatriates in France Austrian expatriates in Switzerland Austrian people of German Bohemian descent Austrian male poets Writers from Austria-Hungary Austro-Hungarian military personnel of World War I Deaths from leukemia in Switzerland French-language poets German-language poets Modernist poets Writers from Prague Sonneteers Austrian male novelists Austrian writers in French