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René Karl Wilhelm Johann Josef Maria Rilke (4 December 1875 – 29 December 1926), shortened to Rainer Maria Rilke (), was an
Austrian Austrian may refer to: * Austrians, someone from Austria or of Austrian descent ** Someone who is considered an Austrian citizen, see Austrian nationality law * Austrian German dialect * Something associated with the country Austria, for example: ...
poet and novelist. He has been acclaimed as an idiosyncratic and expressive poet, and 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 has been seen by critics and scholars as having undertones of mysticism, exploring themes of
subjective Subjective may refer to: * Subjectivity, a subject's personal perspective, feelings, beliefs, desires or discovery, as opposed to those made from an independent, objective, point of view ** Subjective experience, the subjective quality of conscio ...
experience and disbelief. His writings include one novel, several collections of poetry and several volumes of correspondence. Rilke travelled extensively throughout Europe, and in his later years settled in Switzerland, becoming key to the genesis and inspiration for many of his poems. While Rilke is most known for his contributions to German literature, he additionally wrote in French. Among English-language readers, his best-known works include the poetry collections '' Duino Elegies'' (') and ''
Sonnets to Orpheus The ''Sonnets to Orpheus'' (german: Die Sonette an Orpheus) are a cycle of 55 sonnets written in 1922 by the Bohemian-Austrian poet Rainer Maria Rilke (1875–1926). It was first published the following year. Rilke, who is "widely recognized as ...
'' ('), the semi-autobiographical novel ''
The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge ''The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge'', first published as ''Journal of My Other Self'', M. D. Herter Norton (tr.). New York: W. W. Norton, 1949, 1992. Translator's Foreword, p. 8. is a 1910 novel by Austrian poet Rainer Maria Rilke. The nove ...
'' ('), and a collection of ten letters that was published after his death under the title ''
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 Bohemian-Austrian poet Rainer Maria Rilke (1875–1926) to Franz Xaver Kappus (1883–1966), a 19-year-old off ...
'' ('). In the later 20th century, his work found new audiences through use by
self-help Self-help or self-improvement is a self-guided improvement''APA Dictionary of Physicology'', 1st ed., Gary R. VandenBos, ed., Washington: American Psychological Association, 2007.—economically, intellectually, or emotionally—often with a subst ...
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, capital of Bohemia (then part of Austria-Hungary, now part of Czech Republic). His childhood and youth in Prague were not especially happy. His father, Josef Rilke (1838–1906), became a railway official after an unsuccessful military career. His mother, Sophie ("Phia") Entz (1851–1931), came from a well-to-do Prague family, the Entz-Kinzelbergers, who lived in a house on the Herrengasse (Panská) 8, where René also spent many of his early years. The relationship between Phia and her only son was coloured by her mourning for an earlier child, a daughter who had died only one week old. During Rilke's early years, Phia acted as if she sought to recover the lost girl through the boy by treating him as if he were a girl. According to Rilke, he had to wear "fine clothes" and "was a plaything
or his mother Or or OR may refer to: Arts and entertainment Film and television * "O.R.", a 1974 episode of M*A*S*H * Or (My Treasure), a 2004 movie from Israel (''Or'' means "light" in Hebrew) Music * ''Or'' (album), a 2002 album by Golden Boy with Miss ...
like a big doll". His parents' marriage failed in 1884. His parents pressured the poetically and artistically talented youth into entering 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 State of Lower Austria in northeast Austria, with 55,538 inhabitants as of 1 January 2020. St. Pölten ...
, Lower Austria, which he attended from 1886 until 1891, when he left owing to illness. He moved to Linz, where he attended trade school. Expelled from school in May 1892, the 16-year-old prematurely returned to Prague. From 1892 to 1895, he was tutored for the university entrance exam, which he passed in 1895. Until 1896, he studied literature, art history, and philosophy in Prague and Munich.


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. 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 language, Greek: + . is a set of Theory, theories and Therapy, therapeutic techniques"What is psychoanalysis? Of course, one is supposed to answer that it is many things — a theory, a research method, a therapy, a bo ...
with Sigmund Freud, she shared her knowledge of psychoanalysis with Rilke. In 1898 Rilke undertook a journey lasting 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 or Bagratid royal family (Armenian: Բագրատունի). He was t ...
, 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 Boris Leonidovich Pasternak (; rus, Бори́с Леони́дович Пастерна́к, p=bɐˈrʲis lʲɪɐˈnʲidəvʲɪtɕ pəstɛrˈnak; 30 May 1960) was a Russian poet, novelist, composer and literary translator. Composed in 1917, Pa ...
and
Spiridon Drozhzhin Spiridon Dmitryevich Drozhzhin ( rus, Спиридо́н Дми́триевич Дро́жжин, p=sʲpʲɪrʲɪˈdon ˈdmʲitrʲɪjɪvʲɪdʑ ˈdroʐːɨn, - ˈdroʑːɪn, a=Spiridon Dmitriyevich Drozhzhin.ru.vorb.oga; 18 December 1848 – 2 ...
, 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 Paula Modersohn-Becker (8 February 1876 – 20 November 1907) was a German Expressionist painter of the late 19th and early 20th century. Her work is noted for its intensity and its blunt, unapologetic humanity, and for the many self-portraits the ...
, 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 a specialist work of writing (in contrast to reference works) or exhibition on a single subject or an aspect of a subject, often by a single author or artist, and usually on a scholarly subject. In library cataloging, ''monograph ...
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 uniqu ...
. 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 ''Journal of My Other Self'', M. D. Herter Norton (tr.). New York: W. W. Norton, 1949, 1992. Translator's Foreword, p. 8. is a 1910 novel by Austrian poet Rainer Maria Rilke. The nove ...
''. 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 artist and Post-Impressionism, Post-Impressionist painter whose work laid the foundations of the transition from the 19th-century conception of artistic endeavour to 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 ''New Poems'' (german: Neue Gedichte) is a two-part collection of poems written by Bohemian-Austrian poet and novelist Rainer Maria Rilke (1875–1926). The first volume, dedicated to Elisabeth and Karl von der Heydt was composed from 1902 ...
'', 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, 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, 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 Domḗnikos Theotokópoulos ( el, Δομήνικος Θεοτοκόπουλος ; 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. "El G ...
as early as 1908, so he visited
Toledo Toledo most commonly refers to: * Toledo, Spain, a city in Spain * Province of Toledo, Spain * Toledo, Ohio, a city in the United States Toledo may also refer to: Places Belize * Toledo District * Toledo Settlement Bolivia * Toledo, Orur ...
during the winter of 1912/13 to see Greco's paintings. It has been suggested that Greco's manner of depicting angels influenced the conception of the angel in the ''Duino Elegies''. The outbreak of World War I 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 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 and Berg am Irchel. It was only in mid-1921 that was he 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 The ''Sonnets to Orpheus'' (german: Die Sonette an Orpheus) are a cycle of 55 sonnets written in 1922 by the Bohemian-Austrian poet Rainer Maria Rilke (1875–1926). It was first published the following year. Rilke, who is "widely recognized as ...
'' 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 Werner Reinhart (19 March 1884 – 29 August 1951) was a Swiss merchant, philanthropist, amateur clarinetist, and patron of composers and writers, particularly Igor Stravinsky and Rainer Maria Rilke. Reinhart knew and corresponded with many artist ...
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 Alma Mary Templeton Moodie (12 September 18987 March 1943) was an Australian violinist who established an excellent reputation in Germany in the 1920s and 1930s. She was regarded as the foremost female violinist during the inter-war years, and s ...
. 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..." From 1923 on, Rilke increasingly struggled with health problems that necessitated many long stays at a sanatorium 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, on t ...
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 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 also visited Rilke. 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 that took place in the former Russian Empire which began during the First World War. This period saw Russia abolish its monarchy and ad ...
in 1917 as well as the Bavarian Soviet Republic in 1919. He became friends with
Ernst Toller Ernst Toller (1 December 1893 – 22 May 1939) was a German author, playwright, left-wing politician and revolutionary, known for his Expressionism (theatre), Expressionist plays. He served in 1919 for six days as President of the short-lived B ...
and mourned the deaths of
Rosa Luxemburg Rosa Luxemburg (; ; pl, Róża Luksemburg or ; 5 March 1871 – 15 January 1919) was a Polish and naturalised-German revolutionary socialist, Marxist philosopher and anti-war activist. Successively, she was a member of the Proletariat party, ...
, Kurt Eisner, 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. 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 founded and led the National Fascist Party. He was Prime Minister of Italy from the March on Rome in 1922 until his deposition in 194 ...
and described fascism as a healing agent.


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. 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 Raron (french: Rarogne) is a municipality in the district of Raron in the canton of Valais in Switzerland. History Raron is first mentioned around 1101–1200 as ''Rarogni''. In 1146 it was mentioned as ''Rarun''. A settlement on the Heidnisc ...
cemetery to the west of Visp.Excerpt from "Reading Rilke – Reflections on the Problems of Translation"
by
William H. Gass William Howard Gass (July 30, 1924 – December 6, 2017) was an American novelist, short story writer, essayist, critic, and philosophy professor. He wrote three novels, three collections of short stories, a collection of novellas, and seven vol ...
(1999) ; featured in '' The New York Times'' 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 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 in Russia 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. 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 Sigbjørn Obstfelder (21 November 1866 – 29 July 1900) was a 19th-century Norwegian writer and poet. Background Obstfelder was born in Stavanger, Norway on November 21, 1866. He was the eighth child in a family of sixteen children, being o ...
'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. 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 uniqu ...
(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. 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.


''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.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 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 angels and salvation but not in keeping with typical
Christian Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι ...
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 lamentation, many passages are marked by their positive energy and "unrestrained enthusiasm". 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".


''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 The ''Sonnets to Orpheus'' (german: Die Sonette an Orpheus) are a cycle of 55 sonnets written in 1922 by the Bohemian-Austrian poet Rainer Maria Rilke (1875–1926). It was first published the following year. Rilke, who is "widely recognized as ...
''. 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. 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. 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 a minor writer, Franz Xaver Kappus (1883–1966), published a collection of ten letters that Rilke had written to him when Kappus was a 19-year-old officer cadet studying at the Theresian Military Academy in Wiener Neustadt. Rilke had also attended this academy. 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 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 metaphors,
metonymy Metonymy () is a figure of speech in which a concept is referred to by the name of something closely associated with that thing or concept. Etymology The words ''metonymy'' and ''metonym'' come from grc, μετωνυμία, 'a change of name' ...
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" ('); 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 cru ...
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 self-guided improvement''APA Dictionary of Physicology'', 1st ed., Gary R. VandenBos, ed., Washington: American Psychological Association, 2007.—economically, intellectually, or emotionally—often with a subst ...
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 William Howard Gass (July 30, 1924 – December 6, 2017) was an American novelist, short story writer, essayist, critic, and philosophy professor. He wrote three novels, three collections of short stories, a collection of novellas, and seven vol ...
, Galway Kinnell,
Sidney Keyes Sidney Arthur Kilworth Keyes (27 May 1922 – 29 April 1943) was an English poet of World War II. Life Early years and education Keyes was born on 27 May 1922. His mother died shortly afterwards and he was raised by his paternal grandparent ...
, Stephen Spender, 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 and the philosopher
Hans-Georg Gadamer Hans-Georg Gadamer (; ; February 11, 1900 – March 13, 2002) was a German philosopher of the continental tradition, best known for his 1960 ''magnum opus'', '' Truth and Method'' (''Wahrheit und Methode''), on hermeneutics. Life Family an ...
. 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..."


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) ** ''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, 1902–1906) * ''Neue Gedichte (
New Poems ''New Poems'' (german: Neue Gedichte) is a two-part collection of poems written by Bohemian-Austrian poet and novelist Rainer Maria Rilke (1875–1926). The first volume, dedicated to Elisabeth and Karl von der Heydt was composed from 1902 ...
)'' (1907) * ''Duineser Elegien ( Duino Elegies)'' (1922) * ''Sonette an Orpheus (
Sonnets to Orpheus The ''Sonnets to Orpheus'' (german: Die Sonette an Orpheus) are a cycle of 55 sonnets written in 1922 by the Bohemian-Austrian poet Rainer Maria Rilke (1875–1926). It was first published the following year. Rilke, who is "widely recognized as ...
)'' (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 ''Journal of My Other Self'', M. D. Herter Norton (tr.). New York: W. W. Norton, 1949, 1992. Translator's Foreword, p. 8. is a 1910 novel by Austrian poet Rainer Maria Rilke. The nove ...
'') (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, ISBN 979-12-803-6219-3


See also

* Baladine Klossowska *
Rainer Maria Rilke Foundation The Rainer Maria Rilke Foundation (in French language, French: ''Fondation Rainer Maria Rilke'') was established in 1986 in Sierre, Switzerland, on the patronage of the municipality. Its goal is to promote the knowledge of Rainer Maria Rilke's wor ...
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 The Edwin Mellen Press or Mellen Press is an international Independent business, independent company and Academic publisher, academic publishing house with editorial offices in Lewiston (town), New York, Lewiston, New York, and Lampeter, Lampete ...
, 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. . *Neuman, Claude, ''The Sonnets to Orpheus'' and ''Selected Poems'', English and French rhymed and metered translations, trilingual German-English-French editions, Editions www.ressouvenances.fr, 2017, 2018


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 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 Austro-Hungarian writers Austro-Hungarian military personnel of World War I Deaths from cancer in Switzerland Deaths from leukemia French-language poets German-language poets Modernist poets Writers from Prague Sonneteers Austrian male novelists French-language writers from Austria