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Rainer Maria Rilke
On December 4, 1875, Rainer Maria
Rilke was born in Prague, the only child of an unhappy marriage. Rilke's
childhood was also unhappy; his parents placed him in military school with the
desire that he become an officer—a position Rilke was not inclined to hold. With
the help of his uncle, who realized that Rilke was a highly gifted child, Rilke
left the military academy and entered a German preparatory school. By the time
he enrolled in Charles University in Prague in 1895, he knew that he would
pursue a literary career: he had already published his first volume of poetry,
Leben und Lieder, the previous year. At the turn of 1895-96, Rilke
published his second collection, Larenopfer (Sacrifice to the
Lares). A third collection, Traumgekrönt (Dream-Crowned)
followed in 1896. That same year, Rilke decided to leave the university for
Munich, Germany, and later made his first trip to Italy.
In 1897, Rilke went to Russia, a
trip that would prove to be a milestone in Rilke's life, and which marked the
true beginning of his early serious works. While there the young poet met
Tolstoy, whose influence is seen in Das Buch vom lieben Gott und anderes
(Stories of God), and Leonid Pasternak, the nine-year-old Boris's father.
At Worpswede, where Rilke lived for a time, he met and married Clara Westhoff,
who had been a pupil of Rodin. In 1902 he became the friend, and for a time the
secretary, of Rodin, and it was during his twelve-year Paris residence that
Rilke enjoyed his greatest poetic activity. His first great work, Das Stunden
Buch (The Book of Hours), appeared in 1905, followed in 1907 by
Neue Gedichte (New Poems) and Die Aufzeichnungen des Malte
Laurids Brigge (The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge). Rilke would
continue to travel throughout his lifetime; to Italy, Spain and Egypt among many
other places, but Paris would serve as the geographic center of his life, where
he first began to develop a new style of lyrical poetry, influenced by the
visual arts.
When World War I broke out, Rilke
was obliged to leave France and during the war he lived in Munich. In 1919, he
went to Switzerland where he spent the last years of his life. It was here that
he wrote his last two works, the Duino Elegies (1923) and the Sonnets
to Orpheus (1923). He died of leukemia on December 29, 1926. At the time of
his death his work was intensely admired by many leading European artists, but
was almost unknown to the general reading public. His reputation has grown
steadily since his death, and he has come to be universally regarded as a master
of verse.
A Selected
Bibliography
Poetry
Das Buch der Bilder (The
Book of Images) (1902)
Das Stunden Buch (Book of Hours)
(1905)
Neue Gedichte (New Poems) (1907)
Requiem
(1909)
Das Marienleben (The Life of the Virgin Mary) (1913)
Die
Sonette an Orpheus (Sonnets to Orpheus) (1923)
Duineser Elegen (Duino
Elegies) (1923)
Späte Gedichte (Later Poems) (1934)
Poemes
Francais (French Poems) (1935)
Rilke on Love and Other
Difficulties (1975)
Selected Poems of Rainer Maria Rilke
(1981)
New Poems (1984)
Rainer Maria Rilke: Selected Poems
(1985)
The Complete French Poems of Rainer Maria Rilke
(1996)
Prose
Das Buch vom lieben Gott
und anderes (Stories of God) (1900)
Auguste Rodin (1903)
Die
Weise von Liebe und Tod des Cornet Christopher Rilke (1906)
Die
Aufzeichnungen des Malte Laurids Brigge (The Notebooks of Malte Lourids
Brigge) (1910)
Selected Letters of Rainer Maria Rilke
(1960)
Letters on Cezanne (1985)
Rilke and Benvenuta: An
Intimate Correspondence (1987)
Letters to a Young Poet
(1993)
Ahead of All Parting: The Selected Poetry and Prose of Rainer Maria
Rilke (1995)
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