Rilke wrote these fifty-five sonnets in February 1922, in a few weeks of intense inspiration that also finished the Duino Elegies. They are addressed to Orpheus and written in memory of Wera Ouckama Knoop, a young dancer who died of leukemia. The poems take up transformation, praise, music, death and the idea that singing is a form of being, in dense and musical language.
Readers of poetry and of Rilke's late work will find this a central text, though a demanding one. It rewards slow, repeated reading, and gives a view of how a poet tries to speak with the dead and still praise life.
Deep, inward-looking, contemplative and open-ended; a demanding read.
Best for readers like The Wisdom Collector. Which reader are you?
- Published
- 1930
- Publisher
- Insel Verlag
- ISBN
- 9783458081159
- Language
- DE
Quotes by Rainer Maria Rilke
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