Duino Elegies
The Duino Elegies are a collection of ten elegies written by the Bohemian-Austrian poet Rainer Maria Rilke. The elegies are intensely religious, mystical poems that employ the symbolism of angels and salvation in a manner atypical of Christian interpretations, and they are widely recognized as Rilke's most important work.
- author
- Rainer Maria Rilke
- nationality
- Bohemian-Austrian
- field
- Poetry
- known_for
- Ten elegies exploring human existence, angels, life and death
Lore & Background
He claimed to have heard the first lines in the roar of the wind while walking along the cliffs, and completed the draft of the First Elegy that night. Rilke saw the creation of the Duino Elegies and the Sonnets to Orpheus, written in the same month, as a twin birth.
Reader's Guide
The Duino Elegies are described as a metamorphosis of Rilke's 'ontological torment' and an 'impassioned monologue about coming to terms with human existence.' They discuss themes of the limitations and insufficiency of the human condition, fractured human consciousness, mankind's loneliness, the perfection of the angels, life and death, love and lovers, and the task of the poet. Although labeled elegies, implying melancholy, many passages are marked by positive energy.
Did You Know?
- Rilke saw the creation of the Duino Elegies and the Sonnets to Orpheus, written in the same month, as a twin birth.
- The poems begin with the line 'Who, if I cried out, would hear me among the angelic orders?' and later declare that 'each single angel is terrifying.'
- Philosopher Martin Heidegger remarked that Rilke 'comes to realize the destitution of the time more clearly.'
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