Rainer Maria Rilke

René Karl Wilhelm Johann Josef Maria Rilke (4

December 1875 – 29 December 1926), known as Rainer Maria Rilke
Rainer Maria Rilke,[a] was an Austrian poet and
novelist. Acclaimed as an idiosyncratic and expressive
poet, he is widely recognized as a significant writer in
the German language.[1] His work is viewed by critics
and scholars as possessing undertones of mysticism,
exploring themes of subjective experience and
disbelief.[2][3][4] His writings include one novel,
several collections of poetry, several volumes of
correspondence and a few early novellas.

Rilke travelled 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 (Duineser Elegien) and Sonnets to Orpheus
(Die Sonette an Orpheus), a semi-autobiographical
novel The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge (Die
Aufzeichnungen des Malte Laurids Brigge), and a Rilke in 1900
collection of ten letters published posthumously Born René Karl Wilhelm Johann
Letters to a Young Poet (Briefe an einen jungen Josef Maria Rilke
Dichter). In the later 20th century, his work found new 4 December 1875
audiences in citations by self-help authors[5][6][7] and Prague, Bohemia, Austria-
Hungary
frequent quotations in television shows, books and
motion pictures.[8] Died 29 December 1926
(aged 51)
Montreux, Vaud,
Switzerland
Biography Occupation Poet, novelist
Language German, French

Early life (1875–1896) Period 1894–1925

Literary Modernism
He was born René Karl Wilhelm Johann Josef Maria
movement
Rilke in Prague, capital of Kingdom of Bohemia (then
Spouse Clara Westhoff ​(m. 1901)​
ruled by Austria-Hungary, now capital of the Czech
Children 1
Republic). His father, Josef Rilke (1838–1906), found
employment as a railway official after an unsuccessful Signature
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.

His childhood was not always a happy one, and the relationship
between Phia and her only son was colored 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 [for his mother], like a big
doll".[9][10][11][b] His parents' marriage ended in 1884.

His parents enrolled the poetically and artistically talented youth in a

military academy in Sankt Pölten, Lower Austria. He attended classes
from 1886 until 1891, but left due to illness. He then moved to Linz,
and entered a trade school. During this time he lived with Hans
Drouot (publisher and owner of the printing and publishing company Rilke, circa 1878–1879
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,[13] until 1896 when he left school and moved to Munich.[14]

Munich and Saint Petersburg

Rilke met and fell in love with the widely travelled and intellectual woman of letters Lou Andreas-
Salomé 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.[15] 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 with Sigmund Freud, 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, 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 influences on Rilke's poetry
and consciousness.[16]

In 1900, Rilke stayed at the artists' colony at Worpswede. (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 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 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. At the same time his encounter with modernism was very
stimulating: Rilke became deeply involved with the sculpture of Rodin
Paula Modersohn-Becker and then the work of Paul Cézanne. For a time, he acted as Rodin's
(1876–1907), an early secretary, also lecturing and writing a long essay on Rodin and his
expressionist painter, became work. Rodin taught him the value of objective observation and, under
acquainted with Rilke in this influence, Rilke dramatically transformed his poetic style from the
Worpswede and Paris, and subjective and sometimes incantatory language of his earlier work into
painted his portrait in 1906.
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.[17]

During the later part of this decade, Rilke spent extended periods in Ronda, the famous bullfighting
centre in southern Spain, where he kept a permanent room at the Hotel Reina Victoria from December
1912 to February 1913.[18][19]

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 unfinished for a decade
because of a long-lasting creativity crisis. Rilke had
developed an admiration for El Greco 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 Castle near Trieste, Austria, was
Duino Elegies.[20] The outbreak of World War I surprised where Rilke began writing the Duino
Rilke during a stay in Germany. He was unable to return to Elegies in 1912, recounting that he heard
Paris, where his property was confiscated and auctioned. He the famous first line as a voice in the
spent the greater part of the war in Munich. From 1914 to wind while walking along the cliffs and
that he wrote it quickly in his notebook.
1916 he had a turbulent affair with the painter Lou Albert-
Lasard. 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 Hertha Koenig's manor 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.[21]

Switzerland and Muzot (1919–1926)

Château 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 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
Rilke and Klossowska at Chateau Muzot
Zurich, but the real reason was the wish to escape the post-
1923.
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 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.[22]

During this time, Reinhart introduced Rilke to his protégée, the Australian violinist Alma Moodie.[23]
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..."[23][24][25]

From 1923 on, Rilke increasingly struggled 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 his abundant lyrical work in French. His book of French poems Vergers was
published in 1926.
In 1924, Erika Mitterer 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).[26] This was the only time Rilke
had a productive poetic collaboration throughout all his work.[27] Mitterer visited Rilke in November
1925.[28][29] In 1950 her Correspondence in Verse with Rilke was published and received much
praise.[30]

Rilke supported the Russian Revolution in 1917 as well as the Bavarian Soviet Republic in 1919.[31] He
became friends with Ernst Toller and mourned the deaths of Rosa Luxemburg, Kurt Eisner, and Karl
Liebknecht.[32] He confided that of the five or six newspapers he read daily, those on the far left came
closest to his own opinions.[33] 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.[33] 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.[34][35][36]

Death and burial

Shortly before his death, Rilke's illness was diagnosed as
leukemia. He suffered ulcerous sores in his mouth, pain
troubled his stomach and intestines, and he struggled with
increasingly low spirits.[37] 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.[37]

Rilke had chosen as his own epitaph this poem:

Rilke's grave in Raron, Switzerland
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.[37]

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,
a writer of perspectives of creatures such as jellyfish and ticks, a man who he corresponded with, and
poet Hugo von Hofmannsthal who wrote from the perspective of a man who had language become like
'rotten mushrooms' in his mouth.[38]

The Book of Hours

Rilke's three complete cycles of poems that constitute The Book of Hours (Das Stunden-Buch) 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, Die Aufzeichnungen des Malte Laurids Brigge (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 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 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. His work also incorporates impressionistic techniques that were influenced by
Cézanne and Rodin (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 on the Adriatic Sea. 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 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 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.[39][40]

The Duino Elegies are intensely religious, mystical poems that weigh beauty and existential suffering.[41]
The poems employ a rich symbolism of angels and salvation but not in keeping with typical Christian
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?)[42] and later declares that "every angel is terrifying" (Jeder Engel ist
schrecklich).[43] While labelling of these poems as "elegies" would typically imply melancholy and
lamentation, many passages are marked by their positive energy and "unrestrained enthusiasm".[39]
Together, the Duino Elegies are described as a metamorphosis of Rilke's "ontological 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".[44]

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.[45] 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.[46]
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."[47]

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"[48]) appears several 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 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).[49]
Letters to a Young Poet, cover
of the 1934 edition
Style and themes
Rilke extensively engaged with metaphors, metonymy and contradictions in his poetry and prose to
convey disbelief and a crisis of faith. Figures from Greek mythology, such as Apollo, Hermes and
Orpheus, 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 angels, famously described in the
Duino Elegies as "terrifying" (schrecklich); 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 as the
mother of Jesus' child.[50][51]

Legacy
Rilke is one of the best-selling poets in the United States.[52] 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.[53] His work is often described as "mystical"
and has been quoted and referenced by self-help authors.[5] Rilke has
been reinterpreted "as a master who can lead us to a more fulfilled and
less anxious life".[6][54]

Rilke's work has influenced several poets and writers, including

William H. Gass,[55] Galway Kinnell,[56] Sidney Keyes,[57][58] Stephen
Spender,[40] Robert Bly,[40][59] W. S. Merwin,[60] John Ashbery,[61]
novelist Thomas Pynchon[62] and the philosopher Hans-Georg
Gadamer.[63][64] British poet W. H. Auden (1907–1973) has been
A portrait of Rilke painted two
described as "Rilke's most influential English disciple" and he years after his death by Leonid
frequently "paid homage to him" or used the imagery of angels in his Pasternak
work.[65]

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) (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) (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 ([Link]
of-the-love-and-death-of-christoph-cornet-rilke/)) (Lyric story, 1906)
Die Aufzeichnungen des Malte Laurids Brigge (The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge)
(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 Ulrich C. Baer
(New York: Random House, 2018).
Noi siamo le api dell’invisibile ([Link]
amo-le-api-dellinvisibile/), Milano, De Piante Editore, 2022, ISBN 979-12-803-6219-3

See also

Poetry portal

Biography portal

Baladine Klossowska

List of Austrian writers

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

Notes
a. German: [ˈʁaɪnɐ maˈʁiːa ˈʁɪlkə] ⓘor Austrian German: [ˈraɪnɐ maˈriːa ˈrɪlkə]
b. From the mid-16th century until the early 20th century, young boys in the Western world
were unbreeched and wore gowns or dresses until an age that varied between two and
eight.[12]

References
1. Biography: Rainer Maria Rilke 1875–1926 ([Link]
-rilke), Poetry Foundation website. Retrieved 2 February 2013.
2. Müller, Hans Rudolf. Rainer Maria Rilke als Mystiker: Bekenntnis und Lebensdeutung in
Rilkes Dichtungen (Berlin: Furche 1935)
3. Stanley, Patricia H. "Rilke's 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).
4. Freedman 1998, p. 515.
5. Komar, 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".
 6. 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.
7. See also: Mood, John. Rilke on Love and Other Difficulties (New York: W. W. Norton &
Company, 1975); and a book released by Rilke’s own publisher Insel Verlag, Hauschild,
Vera (ed.), Rilke für Gestreßte (Frankfurt am Main: Insel-Verlag, 1998).
8. 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), 189.
9. Prater 1986, p. 5.
10. Freedman 1998, p. 9.
11. "Life of a Poet: Rainer Maria Rilke" ([Link]
books/chap1/[Link]) at The Washington Post.
12. " "Boy's Dress", V&A Museum of childhood, accessed June 27, 2019" ([Link]
[Link]/collections/clothing/boys-dress/).
13. Freedman 1998, p. 36.
14. "Rainer Maria Rilke | Austrian-German poet" ([Link]
Maria-Rilke). Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 17 July 2017.
15. 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.
16. Anna A. Tavis. Rilke's Russia: A Cultural Encounter. Northwestern University Press, 1997.
ISBN 0-8101-1466-6. p. 1.
17. Rilke, Rainer Maria (12 July 2000). "Rainer Maria Rilke" ([Link]
et/rainer-maria-rilke). Rainer Maria Rilke. Retrieved 17 July 2017.
18. "Mit Rilke in Ronda" ([Link] by Volker Mauersberger,
Die Zeit, 11 February 1983 (in German)
19. "Hotel Catalonia Reina Victoria" ([Link]
[Link]
20. Fatima Naqvi-Peters. A Turning Point in Rilke's Evolution: The Experience of El Greco. The
Germanic Review: Literature, Culture, Theory, Vol. 72, Is. 4, pp. 344–362, 1997.
21. "An Kurt Wolf, 28. März 1917." S. Stefan Schank: Rainer Maria Rilke. pp. 119–121.
22. Freedman 1998, p. 505.
23. "R. M. Rilke: Music as Metaphor" ([Link]
tml).
24. "Photo and description" ([Link] Picture-
[Link]. Retrieved 7 June 2012.
25. "Rainer Maria Rilke: a brief biographical overview" ([Link]
ml). [Link]. Retrieved 7 June 2012.
26. Katrin Maria Kohl; Ritchie Robertson (2006). A History of Austrian Literature 1918-2000 (http
s://[Link]/books?id=Q_BD-rogiJkC&pg=PA130). Camden House. pp. 130ff.
ISBN 978-1-57113-276-5.
27. Karen Leeder; Robert Vilain (21 January 2010). The Cambridge Companion to Rilke (https://
[Link]/books?id=lCTzW70X0yYC&pg=PA24). Cambridge University Press.
pp. 24ff. ISBN 978-0-521-87943-9.
28. Rainer Maria Rilke; Robert Vilain; Susan Ranson (2011). Selected Poems: With Parallel
German Text ([Link] OUP
Oxford. pp. 343ff. ISBN 978-0-19-956941-0.
29. Shun Suzuki (2005). "Anruf aus Liebe" ([Link]
suzuki_1-[Link]) (PDF). Der literarische Zaunkönig (in German): 29.
30. Erika Mitterer (2004). The prince of darkness ([Link]
AAMAAJ). Ariadne Press. p. 663. ISBN 978-1-57241-134-0.
31. Freedman 1998, pp. 419–420.
32. Freedman 1998, pp. 421–422.
33. Freedman 1998, p. 422
34. "Rilke-Briefe: Nirgends ein Führer" ([Link] (in
German), Der Spiegel (21/1957). 22 May 1957. Retrieved 28 January 2014.
35. "Elegien gegen die Angstträume des Alltags" by Hellmuth Karasek (in German). Der Spiegel
(47/1981). 11 November 1981; Karasek calls Rilke a friend of the Fascists.
36. Rainer Maria Rilke, Lettres Milanaises 1921–1926. Edited by Renée Lang. Paris: Librairie
Plon, 1956
37. Excerpt from "Reading Rilke – Reflections on the Problems of Translation" ([Link]
[Link]/books/first/g/[Link]) by William H. Gass (1999) ISBN 0-375-40312-4;
featured in The New York Times 2000. Accessed 18 August 2010 (subscription required)
38. Kafka, Franz; M. Anderson, Mark. Metamorphosis: A New Edition with Critique. Norton
Critical Editions. p. xii.
39. 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.
40. Perloff, Marjorie, "Reading Gass Reading Rilke" in Parnassus: Poetry in Review, Volume 25,
Number 1/2 (2001).
41. Gass, William H. Reading Rilke: Reflections on the Problems of Translation (New York:
Alfred A. Knopf, 1999).
42. Rilke, Rainer Maria. "First Elegy" from Duino Elegies, line 1.
43. Rilke, Rainer Maria. "First Elegy" from Duino Elegies, line 6; "Second Elegy", line 1.
44. Dash, Bibhudutt. "In the Matrix of the Divine: Approaches to Godhead in Rilke's Duino
Elegies and Tennyson's In Memoriam" ([Link]
[Link]) in Language in India Volume 11 (11 November 2011), pp. 355–371.
45. Freedman 1998, p. 481.
46. Sword, Helen. Engendering Inspiration: Visionary Strategies in Rilke, Lawrence, and H.D.
(Ann Arbor, Michigan: University of Michigan Press, 1995), pp. 68–70.
47. 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.
48. Sonette an Orpheus, Erste Teil, XIX, v. 8: "Gott mit der Leier"
49. Freedman, Ralph. "Das Stunden-Buch and Das Buch der Bilder: Harbingers of Rilke's
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), 90–92.
50. Knapp, Liza (Winter 1999). "Tsvetaeva's Marine Mary Magdalene". Slavic and East
European Journal. 43 (4): 597–620. doi:10.2307/309415 ([Link]
5). JSTOR 309415 ([Link]
51. Haskins, Susan (1993). Mary Magdalen: Myth and Metaphor ([Link]
ymagdalenmyth00hask_0/page/361). Harcourt. p. 361 ([Link]
alenmyth00hask_0/page/361). ISBN 9780151577651.
52. 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.
53. 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), p. 189.
54. See also: Mood, John. Rilke on Love and Other Difficulties (New York: W.W. Norton, 1975);
and a book released by Rilke’s own publisher Insel Verlag, Hauschild, Vera (editor). Rilke für
Gestreßte (Frankfurt am Main: Insel-Verlag, 1998).
55. Leclair, Thomas (Summer 1977). "William Gass: The Art of Fiction No. 65" ([Link]
[Link]/interviews/3576/the-art-of-fiction-no-65-william-gass). The Paris Review.
No. 70.
56. Malecka, Katarzyna. Death in the Works of Galway Kinnell (Amherst, New York: Cambria
Press, 2008), passim.
57. Guenther, John. Sidney Keyes: A Biographical Enquiry (London: London Magazine Editions,
1967), p. 153.
58. "Self-Elegy: Keith Douglas and Sidney Keyes" (Chapter 9) in Kendall, Tim. Modern English
War Poetry (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006).
59. 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.
60. Perloff, 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.
61. Perloff, Marjorie. "Transparent Selves': The Poetry of John Ashbery and Frank O’Hara," in
Yearbook of English Studies: American Literature Special Number 8 (1978):171–196, at p.
175.
62. Robey, Christopher J. The Rainbow Bridge: On Pynchon's Use of Wittgenstein and Rilke
(Olean, New York: St. Bonaventure University, 1982).
63. Gadamer analyzed many of Rilke's themes and symbols. See: Gadamer, Hans-Georg.
"Mythopoietische Umkehrung im Rilke's Duisener Elegien" in Gesammelten Werke, Band 9:
Ästhetik und Poetik II Hermenutik im Vollzug (Tübingen: J. C. B. Mohr, 1993), pp. 289–305.
64. Dworick, Stephanie. In the Company of Rilke: Why a 20th-Century Visionary Poet Speaks
So Eloquently to 21st-Century Readers (New York: Penguin, 2011).
65. 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..."

Sources
Freedman, Ralph (1998). Life of a Poet: Rainer Maria Rilke. New York: Northwestern
University Press. ISBN 978-0-810-11543-9.
Prater, Donald A. (1986). A Ringing Glass: The Life of Rainer Maria Rilke. Oxford:
Clarendon Press.

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. ISBN 978-0-521-70508-0
Mood, John, A New Reading of Rilke's 'Elegies': Affirming the Unity of 'life-and-death
Lewiston, New York: Edwin Mellen Press, 2009. ISBN 978-0-7734-3864-4.
Numerous contributors, A Reconsideration of Rainer Maria Rilke, Agenda poetry magazine,
vol. 42 nos. 3–4, 2007. ISBN 978-0-902400-83-2.
Pechota Vuilleumier, Cornelia, Heim und Unheimlichkeit bei Rainer Maria Rilke und Lou
Andreas-Salomé. 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
Rainer Maria Rilke: Letters to a Young Poet, The first letter ([Link]
tters-to-a-young-poet-rainer-maria-rilke/) (in English, French, Italian, German, Spanish, and
Chamorro)
Rainer Rilke and his Poem Black Cat ([Link]
ainer-maria-rilke/)
Works by Rainer Maria Rilke ([Link] at Project
Gutenberg
Works by or about Rainer Maria Rilke ([Link]
ct%3A%22Rilke%2C%20Rainer%20Maria%22%20OR%20subject%3A%22Rilke%2C%20R
ainer%20M%2E%22%20OR%20subject%3A%22Rilke%2C%20R%2E%20M%2E%22%20
OR%20subject%3A%22Rainer%20Maria%20Rilke%22%20OR%20subject%3A%22Raine
r%20M%2E%20Rilke%22%20OR%20subject%3A%22R%2E%20M%2E%20Rilke%22%20
OR%20subject%3A%22Rilke%2C%20Rainer%22%20OR%20subject%3A%22Rainer%20Ri
lke%22%20OR%20creator%3A%22Rainer%20Maria%20Rilke%22%20OR%20creator%3
A%22Rainer%20M%2E%20Rilke%22%20OR%20creator%3A%22R%2E%20M%2E%20Ril
ke%22%20OR%20creator%3A%22R%2E%20Maria%20Rilke%22%20OR%20creator%3
A%22Rilke%2C%20Rainer%20Maria%22%20OR%20creator%3A%22Rilke%2C%20Raine
r%20M%2E%22%20OR%20creator%3A%22Rilke%2C%20R%2E%20M%2E%22%20OR%
20creator%3A%22Rilke%2C%20R%2E%20Maria%22%20OR%20creator%3A%22Rainer%
 20Rilke%22%20OR%20creator%3A%22Rilke%2C%20Rainer%22%20OR%20title%3A%22
Rainer%20Maria%20Rilke%22%20OR%20title%3A%22Rainer%20M%2E%20Rilke%22%2
0OR%20title%3A%22R%2E%20M%2E%20Rilke%22%20OR%20title%3A%22Rainer%20Ri
lke%22%20OR%20description%3A%22Rainer%20Maria%20Rilke%22%20OR%20descripti
on%3A%22Rainer%20M%2E%20Rilke%22%20OR%20description%3A%22R%2E%20M%
2E%20Rilke%22%20OR%20description%3A%22Rilke%2C%20Rainer%20Maria%22%20O
R%20description%3A%22Rilke%2C%20Rainer%20M%2E%22%20OR%20description%3
A%22Rainer%20Rilke%22%20OR%20description%3A%22Rilke%2C%20Rainer%22%29%
20OR%20%28%221875-1926%22%20AND%20Rilke%29%29%20AND%20%28-mediatyp
e:software%29) at the Internet Archive
Works by Rainer Maria Rilke ([Link] at LibriVox (public domain
audiobooks)
Publications by and about Rainer Maria Rilke ([Link]
discovery/search?query=any,contains,%22Rainer+Maria+Rilke%22&tab=LibraryCatalog&se
arch_scope=MyInstitution&vid=41SNL_51_INST:helveticat&lang=de&offset=0) in the
catalogue Helveticat of the Swiss National Library
"Literary estate of Rainer Maria Rilke" ([Link]
21). HelveticArchives. Swiss National Library.
Rainer Maria Rilke, Profile ([Link] at [Link]
International Rilke Society ([Link] (in German)
Rilke, Rainer Maria (1920). Erste Gedichte ([Link]
ger?pid=3280298). Leipzig: Insel.
Translator of Rilke into English, interview ([Link]
love-for-the-world/) with Joanna Macy (2010 original, 2019 updated: transcript and audio) for
[Link]
Poems by Rainer Maria Rilke: a new translation ([Link]
18-rilke-translations-poetry-timothy-watson/) A new translation by Timothy Watson published
on February 28, 2018

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