Rainer Maria Rilke






Rainer Maria Rilke

author profile


born
December 04, 1875

died
December 29, 1926

place of birth
Prague, Czech Republic

genre
Poetry

influences
Auguste Rodin, Boris Pasternak, André Gide, Lou Andreas-Salomé


about this author

Rainer Maria Rilke is considered one of the German language's greatest 20th century poets.

His haunting images tend to focus on the difficulty of communion with the ineffable in an age of disbelief, solitude, and profound anxiety — themes that tend to position him as a transitional figure between the traditional and the modernist poets.

He wrote in both verse and a highly lyrical prose. His two most famous verse sequences are the Sonnets to Orpheus and the Duino Elegies; his two most famous prose works are the Letters to a Young Poet and the semi-autobiographical The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge.

He also wrote more than 400 poems in French, dedicated to his homeland of choice, the canton of Valais i...more




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avg rating: 4.36 | 9,550 ratings | 972 reviews | 334 distinct works | 81 fans
Letters to a Young Poet Letters to a Young Poet
by Rainer Maria Rilke
avg rating 4.34 — 3,246 ratings — published 1924
44 editions
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The Selected Poetry of Rainer... The Selected Poetry of Rainer Maria Rilke
by Rainer Maria Rilke, Stephen Mitchell, Robert Hass
avg rating 4.47 — 1,284 ratings — published 1910
16 editions
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Duino Elegies Duino Elegies
by Rainer Maria Rilke
avg rating 4.49 — 507 ratings — published 1987
48 editions
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The Notebooks of Malte Laurids... The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge
by Rainer Maria Rilke
avg rating 4.07 — 399 ratings — published 1910
48 editions
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Letters to a Young Poet/the Po... Letters to a Young Poet/the Possibility of Being
by Rainer Maria Rilke
avg rating 4.39 — 365 ratings — published 2002
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Rilke's Book of Hours: Love Po... Rilke's Book of Hours: Love Poems to God
by Rainer Maria Rilke
avg rating 4.46 — 293 ratings — published 1996
4 editions
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Duino Elegies and the Sonnets... Duino Elegies and the Sonnets of Orpheus
by Rainer Maria Rilke
avg rating 4.58 — 222 ratings — published 1923
12 editions
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Rilke on Love and Other Diffic... Rilke on Love and Other Difficulties: Translations and Considerations
by Rainer Maria Rilke
avg rating 4.28 — 229 ratings — published 2004
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The Book of Images The Book of Images
by Rainer Maria Rilke
avg rating 4.34 — 195 ratings — published 1991
2 editions
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Ahead of All Parting: The Sele... Ahead of All Parting: The Selected Poetry & Prose of Rainer Maria Rilke
by Rainer Maria Rilke, Stephen Mitchell (translator)
avg rating 4.68 — 161 ratings — published 1995
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"Perhaps all the dragons in our lives are princesses who are only waiting to see us act, just once, with beauty and courage. Perhaps everything that frightens us is, in its deepest essence, something helpless that wants our love."
Rainer Maria Rilke
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"Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves, like locked rooms and like books that are now written in a very foreign tongue. Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer."
Rainer Maria Rilke
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"Find out the reason that commands you to write; see whether it has spread its roots into the very depth of your heart; confess to yourself you would have to die if you were forbidden to write."
Rainer Maria Rilke
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