Rainer Maria Rilke
German-language poet from Bohemia whose Duino Elegies and Sonnets to Orpheus are the supreme achievements of twentieth-century German poetry. His Letters to a Young Poet remain an enduring guide to the creative life.
Works
- Duino ElegiesTen philosophical elegies on transformation, mortality, and human existence
- Sonnets to OrpheusTwenty-nine sonnets addressing the god Orpheus and celebrating poetry's power
- The Book of HoursReligious devotional poems to Mary and Christ with mystical fervor
- New PoemsNew poems focusing on perception, observation, and the visible world
- The Notebooks of Malte Laurids BriggeProse novel-poem following troubled aristocrat's inner fragmentation and growth