Editing Rainer Maria Rilke (section)

==Writings==

===''The Panther''===

<blockquote>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.</blockquote>

''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.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Kafka |first1=Franz |last2=M. Anderson |first2=Mark |title=Metamorphosis: A New Edition with Critique |publisher=Norton Critical Editions |page=xii}}</ref>

===''The Book of Hours''===
{{See also|The Book of Hours}}
Rilke's three complete cycles of poems that constitute ''The Book of Hours'' (''{{Lang|de|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''===
{{See also|The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge}}
Rilke wrote his only novel, ''{{Lang|de|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 [[Atheism|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 [[Paul Cézanne|Cézanne]] and [[Auguste Rodin|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''===
{{See also|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 (mood)|depression]], some of which was caused by the events of [[World War I]] and his [[Conscription|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&nbsp;– writing in a frantic pace he described as "a savage creative storm"&nbsp;– he completed the collection in February 1922 while staying at [[Château de Muzot]] in [[Veyras, Switzerland|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.<ref name="HoenigerSymbolismArticle1939">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.</ref><ref name="PerloffReviewGassRilke">Perloff, Marjorie, "Reading Gass Reading Rilke" in ''Parnassus: Poetry in Review'', Volume 25, Number 1/2 (2001).</ref>

The ''Duino Elegies'' are intensely religious, [[Mysticism|mystical]] poems that weigh beauty and existential suffering.<ref name="Gass">[[William H. Gass|Gass, William H.]] ''Reading Rilke: Reflections on the Problems of Translation'' (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1999).</ref> The poems employ a rich symbolism of [[angel]]s and [[salvation]] but not in keeping with typical [[Christianity|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?'')<ref>Rilke, Rainer Maria. "First Elegy" from ''Duino Elegies'', line 1.</ref> and later declares that "every angel is terrifying" (''Jeder Engel ist schrecklich'').<ref>Rilke, Rainer Maria. "First Elegy" from ''Duino Elegies'', line 6; "Second Elegy", line 1.</ref> While labelling of these poems as "elegies" would typically imply [[Depression (mood)|melancholy]] and [[lament]]ation, many passages are marked by their positive energy and "unrestrained enthusiasm".<ref name="HoenigerSymbolismArticle1939" /> Together, the ''Duino Elegies'' are described as a metamorphosis of Rilke's "[[Ontology|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&nbsp;... man's loneliness, the perfection of the angels, life and death, love and lovers, and the task of the poet".<ref>Dash, Bibhudutt. [http://www.languageinindia.com/nov2011/divinematrixfinal.pdf "In the Matrix of the Divine: Approaches to Godhead in Rilke's Duino Elegies and Tennyson's In Memoriam"] in ''Language in India'' Volume 11 (11 November 2011), pp. 355–371.</ref>

===''Sonnets to Orpheus''===
{{See also|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]]''.{{sfn|Freedman|1998|p=481}} 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]].<ref>Sword, Helen. ''Engendering Inspiration: Visionary Strategies in Rilke, Lawrence, and H.D.'' (Ann Arbor, Michigan: University of Michigan Press, 1995), pp. 68–70.</ref> 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&nbsp;... nevertheless governs and moves the course of the whole."<ref>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.</ref>

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"<ref>''{{Lang|de|Sonette an Orpheus}}'', Erste Teil, XIX, v. 8: "Gott mit der Leier"</ref>) 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''===
[[File:Letterstoayoungpoet.png|thumb|upright|''Letters to a Young Poet'', cover of the 1934 edition]]
{{See also|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 ''[[The Book of Hours|Das Stunden-Buch]]'' (''The Book of Hours'') and ''[[The Book of Images|Das Buch der Bilder]]'' (''The Book of Images'').<ref>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.</ref>