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Selected Poems of Rainer Maria Rilke

by Rainer Maria Rilke, Robert Bly (Introduction)

4.41 of 5 stars 4.41 · rating details · 6,937 ratings · 247 reviews

For poetry lovers and students of literature and literary criticism, Robert Bly, the National Book Award-winning poet, brings his prowess as a translator and critic to bear on the work of one of the major German poets of the century.

Paperback, 240 pages

Published April 22nd 1981 by Harper Perennial (first published 1910)

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Aug 24, 2012 s.penkevich rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: The world

Recommended to s.penkevich by: Pynchon

Shelves: poetry, favorites, german

Looking up from my book, from the close countable lines
into the finished-full night outside:
how in starry measure my packed feelings scatter,
as though a bouquet of wildflowers
were being untied…

One needs only to thumb through any book of Rilke’s poetry for a mere minute to find a line or stanza that will captivate their heart and mind. Considered by many to be the preeminent German language poet, Rainer Maria Rilke (1875 – 1926) has left us with a dazzling collection of poetry and prose that can...more Looking up from my book, from the close countable lines
into the finished-full night outside:
how in starry measure my packed feelings scatter,
as though a bouquet of wildflowers
were being untied…

One needs only to thumb through any book of Rilke’s poetry for a mere minute to find a line or stanza that will captivate their heart and mind. Considered by many to be the preeminent German language poet, Rainer Maria Rilke (1875 – 1926) has left us with a dazzling collection of poetry and prose that can make anyone believe in the power and glory of language.

Rose, oh pure contradiction, joy
of being No-one's sleep under so many
lids.
-Rilke’s epitaph

I decided to investigate Rilke after his Duino Elegies were so highly praised and alluded to in Pynchon’s Gravity's Rainbow, particularly the eerie 8th Elegy. Ludwig Wittgenstein was another to openly admire Rilke in his writings, and the novel Wittgenstein’s Mistress contained a wealth of facts about the poet. With so many references to him in such a short span of time, how could I not own the complete collection of his poetry? After spending the summer reading through the great Wittgenstein investigating the deficiencies of language, Rilke illuminates the potency and remarkable versatility of language.

Rilke explores the human heart and extracts our emotions into perfectly crafted imagery. Roses, angels and the heavens appear throughout the majority of his work, yet each time appearing fresh and fulfilling. A major selling point for this edition is that it includes a vast assortment of his body of work, including the full text of his most famous Duino Elegies and his Sonnets To Orpheus. I can’t speak any more highly of this poet, as nothing I can say will do him the justice his poetry will. I simply recommend this to anyone with even the slightest interest in poetry. Within the lines of his poems, you will find images and metaphor that will take your breath away.

5/5

-My life is not this steeply sloping hour,
in which you see me hurrying.
Much stands behind me; I stand before it like a tree;
I am only one of my many mouths,
and at that, the one that will be still the soonest.

I am the rest between two notes,
which are somehow always in discord
because Death’s note wants to climb over—
but in the dark interval, reconciled,
they stay there trembling.
And the song goes on, beautiful.

Love Song
How should I keep my soul
from touching yours? How shall I
lift it up beyond you to other things?
Ah, I would gladly hide it
in darkness with something lost
in some silent foreign place
that doesn’t tremble when your deeps stir.
Yet whatever touches you and me
blends us together the way a bow’s stroke
draws one voice from two strings.
Across what instrument are we stretched taut?
And what player holds us in his hand?
O sweet song.

Falling Stars
Do you still remember: falling stars,
How they leapt slantwise through the sky
Like horses over suddenly held-out hurdles
Of our wishes – did we have so many? -
For stars, innumerable, leapt everywhere;
Almost every gaze upward became
Wedded to the swift hazard of their play,
And our heart felt like a single thing
Beneath that vast disintegration of their brilliance-
And was whole, as if it would survive them!

-Again and agan, even though we know love’s landscape
and the little churchyard with its lamenting names
and the terrible reticent gorge in which the others
end: again and again the two of us walk out together
under the ancient trees, lay ourselves down again and again
among the flowers, and look up into the sky.

Autumn Day
Lord: it is time. The summer was immense.
Lay your long shadows on the sundials,
and on the meadows let the winds go free.
Command the last fruits to be full;
give them just two more southern days,
urge them on to completion and chase
the last sweetness into the heavy wine.
Who has no house now, will never build one.
Who is alone now, will long remain so,
will stay awake, read, write long letters
and will wander restlessly up and down
the tree-lines streets, when the leaves are drifting.

The Lovers
See how in their veins all becomes spirit:
into each other they mature and grow.
Like axles, their forms tremblingly orbit,
round which it whirls, bewitching and aglow.
Thirsters, and they receive drink,
watchers, and see: they receive sight.
Let them into one another sink
so as to endure each other outright

Ignorant Before the Heavens of my Life
Ignorant before the heavens of my life,
I stand and gaze in wonder. Oh the vastness
of the stars. Their rising and descent. How still.
As if I didn't exist. Do I have any
share in this? Have I somehow dispensed with
their pure effect? Does my blood's ebb and flow
change with their changes? Let me put aside
every desire, every relationship
except this one, so that my heart grows used to
its farthest spaces. Better that it live
fully aware, in the terror of its stars, than
as if protected, soothed by what is near.
(less)

41 likes · like · see review

Mar 17, 2008 David rated it 1 of 5 stars Recommends it for: nobody

There are times in life when I feel as if I live in a parallel universe. You know the way it goes. The usual precipitating event - everyone else on the planet holds an opinion or belief that seems so outrageous and outlandish to me, we cannot be having the same experience. I've had this feeling all day today.

My current sense of profound alienation was triggered by looking down the list of other people's ratings for this book, the Robert Bly "translation" of selected poems by Rilke. Four-star and...more

13 likes · like · see review

Feb 09, 2013 Holly rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Those who feel forgotten

Shelves: poetry

I can't comment on the accuracy of this translation of Rilke poetry by Stephen Mitchell or how it compares to others but the English translations alone are beautiful. It contains a selective yet wide sampling of Rilke's many works, making it a good introduction to the poet. After reading many of the poems I've been inspired to seek out both the Book of Hours and his Letters to a Young Poet. My favorite poem at the moment comes from the former:

[I am, O Anxious One]

I am, O Anxious One. Don't you h

...more

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Nov 10, 2007 Jessica rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: people who don't know german (though the german's here too, if you do)

Shelves: favorites

Who, if I cried out, would hear me among the angels'
hierarchies? and even if one of them pressed me
suddenly against his heart: I would be consumed
in that overwhelming existence. For beauty is nothing
but the beginning of terror, which we still are just able to endure,
and we are so awed because it serenely distains
to annihilate us. Every angel is terrifying.
And so I hold myself back and swallow the call-note
of my dark sobbing. Ah, whom can we ever turn to
in our need? Not angels, not humans,
and al...more

6 likes · like · see review

Apr 07, 2013 Jenny rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: own, audiobook, poetry, read2013

It's National Poetry Month (April 2013) and I've been hoarding volumes of poetry all year in preparation. I've read Rilke before, and I'm still surprised at how sometimes a poem can start out with something mundane and end with greater emotional impact. Rilke is a master at this particular method.

When I requested this volume from Paperbackswap.com, I didn't realize it was on cassette tape - luckily I still had an old stereo with a working tape deck lying around. The poems are read by the transl...more

4 likes · like · see review

Oct 16, 2012 Bethan rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: poetry

[-I read the Albert Ernest Flemming translations published by Routledge.]

At the end of this collection, the epitaph that Rilke chose for himself suggests that he will not be able to be grasped for sure by anyone. Poetry expresses the inexpressible? I am just going to make some notes for myself, whether fair or not.

-Rilke is very good at creating very fine and condensed feelings. Many of the poems concluded in very moving places on a plane in between inner and external experience.

-I thought the...more

1 like · like · see review

Jun 30, 2008 Tortla rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Shannon

Shelves: religiony, dragons, classics, everybody-should-own, poetry

Honorary "dragons" shelving for being just that awesome.

EDIT:
Also, I think I've read all the poems and most of the extra stuff, but I'm not sure if I consider this as "read," yet. I think it's going to stay on the currently-reading shelf until I learn German and French so as to be able to read the pre-translated half (so it's quite possible that this book shall never be "read"). Seriously, Rilke has made me want to learn German and French so I can read his stuff in the original languages (and un...more Honorary "dragons" shelving for being just that awesome.

EDIT:
Also, I think I've read all the poems and most of the extra stuff, but I'm not sure if I consider this as "read," yet. I think it's going to stay on the currently-reading shelf until I learn German and French so as to be able to read the pre-translated half (so it's quite possible that this book shall never be "read"). Seriously, Rilke has made me want to learn German and French so I can read his stuff in the original languages (and understand it...I've read parts of the the French/German and been able to tell what some of the words were, but it'd be nice to understand them without their translations, since translated poetry probably loses a lot of its meaning). ...I'm feeling pretty pretentious.
I think Rilke was a feminist. Case in point:
"We are only just now beginning to consider the relation of one individual to a second individual objectively and without prejudice, and our attempts to live such relationships have no model before them. And yet in the changes brought about by time there are already many things that can help our timid novitiate.
The girl and the woman, in their new, individual unfolding, will only in passing be imitators of male behavious and misbehaviour and repeaters of male professions. After the uncertainty of such transitions, it will become obvious that women were going through the abundance and variation of those (often ridiculous) disguises just so that they could purify their own essential nature and wash out the deforming influences of the other sex....This humanity of woman, carried in her womb through all her suffering and humiliation, will come to light when she has stripped off the conventions of mere femaleness in the transformations of her outward status, and those men who do not yet feel it approaching will be surprised and struck by it."
-letter to Franz Xaver Kappus, May 14, 1904
I mean, his portrayal of females tends to be a little outdated, but this was the early 20th century, so I think he has every right to be outdated. I think it's pretty adorable how much he seems to admire women so much that he says things like "The breaking away of childhood / left you intact." (in Antistrophes).
I also really like Palm. That poem's so sweet.

re-EDIT:
Okay nevermind about the keeping it on currently-reading indefinitely thing. It's read. I should re-read it, but still.(less)

2 likes · like · see review

Jun 23, 2008 Peter added it · review of another edition Recommends it for: people who carefully absorb and reflect on experiences around them

Shelves: poetry, partly-read

I'm racing my way up to page 43 so far (it's been about 5 months). It's funny, his poems are so image intensive, I never really know how to read, say, 20 at one sitting. That said, here's one of the three I read this morning--its images have some real gems:

Spanish Dancer

As on all its sides a kitchen-match darts white
flickering tongues before it bursts into flame:
with the audience around her, quickened, hot,
her dance begins to flicker in the dark room.

(full post)
http://intuitivechef.vox.com/libra ...more

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Mar 27, 2008 Katherine rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: awesome

Hi, new favorite poet, where have you been all my life?

I'm cheating with this review, because I'm currently only halfway through this volume, yet I know it's a five-star review. (EDIT: Finished it - everything rocked!) I can blow through a novel in a day, but I can only read a few pages of Rilke at a time, or else the profundity and sheer awesomeness of it all overwhelms me.

I don't know if I've ever encountered a poet like this before. To paraphrase from the back cover, he is poise, power, speed...more

5 likes · like · see review

Aug 26, 2008 Yuval rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: everybody

I'm not the world's biggest poetry buff, but Rilke's work is more like lyric philosophy, and the depth of ideas and richness of imagery is overwhelming. It's been way too long since reading these, and I've thoroughly loved the re-read over the last few weeks.

Last time I read this, I did not speak German, so this is the first time I was able to assess Stephen Mitchell's translations of the poems from German. They are truly amazing; accurate, graceful, and lovely. I can't imagine any better.

3 likes · like · see review

May 16, 2013 Wendy Galliart Jones rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I marked this as "read" although I haven't read every single poem yet, and I think I will never really be done reading this book. Poetry is a funny thing, and even though I don't love every single one of these poems, some of Rilke's words pierce straight to my heart. And that's why I have to give it five stars. (And oh, how I am desperately wishing I spoke German right now so I could read his own words for myself.)

Here is one of the poems that I have been loving lately. For me, this poem captur...more

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May 11, 2012 Nicola rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I had a strange reaction to reading this extensive selection of Rilke again after about a ten year gap. Though I cannot possibly not give him five stars, he is an amazing amazing poet after all, I did find myself a little put off at times. I'd put the book down and think, "How cold." Perhaps, I was reading too much Lorca and Neruda on the sly (Bly's wonderful petite collection, "Leaping Poetry"), but I think there's an undeniable distance in Rilke. He's staring up at the stars, such a romantic s...more

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Nov 06, 2011 Everett Darling rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2011

Rating a book of translations which include the originals is annoying. So 6 stars for Rilke, 2 stars for Bly´s translation, I´ve called it a 4 star read. I just take a lot of issue with Bly´s liberal translations, "Herbsttag" to October Day, "Jubel-Baum" to oak tree of joy, which call for far simpler translations- Fall Day, Tree of Joy. I lose a lot of respect for purposefully erudite or indulgent translators. Clearly a translation is going to catch some of the translator´s character, but it sho...more

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Dec 30, 2010 Justin rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The side by side German/ English text is most welcome and encouragement enough to learn Deutsche. I have read only a few other translations of Rilke and Stephen Mitchell's flows very well, although I cannot speak to how many liberties he takes with the original German. This book contains arguably Rilke's best works: the Duino Elegies, Sonnets to Orpheus, and others that he wrote during different stages of his life. The poems are arranged chronologically, and its fascinating to see his developmen...more

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Jun 28, 2010 Alan rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: The moody and blue (as long as you're not *too* moody)

Recommended to Alan by: Die Sache spricht für sich selbst.

The Introduction, by one Robert Hass, seemed interminable, and I'm not sure that his idiosyncratic interpretations and biographical snippets would add much for someone who is already familiar with Rilke's life and work. But I felt obliged to struggle through its forty-some pages, and did glean some tidbits of understanding about this remarkable poet, even if I felt a little afraid to embark on actually reading Rilke's poems afterwards.

The main thing I learned is that I don't know all that much a...more

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Aug 18, 2009 Patrick Gibson rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: poetry

Rilke occupies a spot on my shelf of late-nineteenth century sturm und drang artists melding beautifully with Mahler, Bruckner, Hesse and Delequoix. Considered one of the German language's greatest 20th-century poets his haunting images 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. (I lifted that sentence from Wikipedia, but...more

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Dec 30, 2012 Danelle rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 20th-century, mine, poetry, favorites

(from THE FIRST ELEGY)

Who, if I cried out, would hear me among the angels'
hierarchies? and even if one of them pressed me
suddenly against his heart: I would be consumed
in that overwhelming existence. For beauty is nothing
but the beginning of terror, which we still are just able to endure,
and we are so awed because it serenely disdains
to annihilate us. Every angel is terrifying.

THE SWAN

This laboring through what is still undone,
as though, legs bound, we hobbled along the way,
is like the awkward...more (from THE FIRST ELEGY)

Who, if I cried out, would hear me among the angels'
hierarchies? and even if one of them pressed me
suddenly against his heart: I would be consumed
in that overwhelming existence. For beauty is nothing
but the beginning of terror, which we still are just able to endure,
and we are so awed because it serenely disdains
to annihilate us. Every angel is terrifying.

THE SWAN

This laboring through what is still undone,
as though, legs bound, we hobbled along the way,
is like the awkward walking of the swan.

And dying-to let go, no longer feel
the solid ground we stand on every day-
is like his anxious letting himself fall

into the water, which receives him gently
and which, as though with reverence and joy,
draws back past him in streams on either side;
while, infinitely silent and aware,
in his full majesty and ever more
indifferent, he condescends to glide.

THE VAST NIGHT

Often I gazed at you in wonder: stood at the window begun
the day before, stood and gazed at you in wonder. As yet
the new city seemed forbidden to me, and the strange
unpersuadable landscape darkened as though
I didn't exist. Even the nearest Things
didn't care whether I understood them. The street
thrust itself up to the lamppost: I saw it was foreign.
Over there- a room, feelable, clear in the lamplight-,
I already took part; they noticed, and closed the shutters.
Stood. Then a child began crying. I knew what the mothers
all around, in the houses, were capable of-, and knew
the inconsolable origins of all tears.
Or a woman's voice sang and reached a little beyond
expectation, or downstairs an old man let out
a cough that was full of reproach, as though his body were right
and the gentler world mistaken. And then the hour
struck-, but I counted too late, it tumbled on past me.-
Like a new boy at school, who is finally allowed to join in,
but he can't catch the ball, is helpless at all the games
the others pursue with such ease, and he stands there staring
into the distance,-where-?: I stood there and suddenly
grasped that it was you: you were playing with me, grown-up
Night, and I gazed at you in wonder. Where the towers
were raging, where with averted fate
a city surrounded me, and indecipherable mountains
camped against me, and strangeness, in narrowing circles,
prowled around my randomly flickering emotions-:
it was then that in all your magnificence
you were not ashamed to know me. Your breath moved tenderly
over my face. And, spread across solemn distances,
your smile entered my heart.

(less)

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Nov 28, 2009 Jenna rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: international-poetry

Very pretty; lyrical; what we mean when we say "poetic," I suppose.

His early poems show he has a great eye, a real knack for observation. He effaces his ego, transforming himself into an empty receptacle for perceptions (a Transparent Eyeball, maybe?). It's a spiritual feat, of the Buddhist ilk. If he doesn't quite succeed in becoming one with the Void, he at least sings the Void's praises.

His later poems showcase his talent for crafting highly complex metaphors. Some float in one ear and out th...more

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Aug 21, 2011 Kris rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Rilke is a strange companion to take on a trip, always trying to draw your attention inwards into yourself, or else towards death, rather that out onto the sights around you. The writing is beautiful, sometimes a little too German-philosophical (filled with words like "Thing" with a capital T, "heart space" and other vague metaphysical pointers), but usually just beautiful. And big credit to whoever compiled the notes section, which felt essential to pulling out the meaning of the poems. The not...more

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Oct 01, 2012 Scarlett rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 20th-century, poetry

I see that there's a lot of talk concerning the quality of the translations of these poems. I am not sure I am one to decide whether the translation was good or not because 1. I do not know German; 2. this was my first Rilke, so I am not sure how he is supposed to sound.

In any case, one of the things that I admired greatly about his poetry was his sense of rhythm. These poems are definitely meant to read aloud so you can easily feel their musicality (I admit that I had to re read some lots of ti...more

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Jul 27, 2012 Wordsmith rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Anyone

Shelves: poetry-shortstory, linguistic-marksmanship, translation, 1001, have-reviewed, recommended, topfavorites, favorite-author, philosophy, spirituality, star-five, literature, ranking-2012-reads-processing

POEMS by Rainier Maria Rilke
5 stars ☆☆☆☆☆ and numerous lyrical notes ♪♪♪♪♪♪( ´θ｀)ノ
(OK, so I love this man! Does it "show?")

“The only way I know to describe the beauty of Rilke's poetry is to say it this way: Imagine God Himself or His choir invisible or a Seraphim Angel breathing soft,

ohhh, with such pure divine tranquility, akin to a whispered, mellifluous lullaby, with all the transcendence that IS the sublime Word Painter Rilke, being sung directly

into your heart, indeed, to the deepest cor...more

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Aug 03, 2011 Sella Thorne is currently reading it · review of another edition

I chose to do Rilke for a project for Poetry class because I've read clips of his poems in one of my favorite series, The Wolves of Mercy Falls. I chose him not only because I thought it would be fun to learn about Sam's (one of the main characters from that series) favorite poet, but because the excerpts from his poetry that are spread out through the books always were good and I wanted to read more.

I'm really glad I chose Rilke. I love his poetry a lot. He is a really good poet; his poems are...more

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Aug 28, 2010 Keith Michael rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Rilke is truly incredible. his style is so vaporous- the images linger and cloud together, broken up by indefinite semicolons and dashes, and the final lines are like cold glass against the cheek. he's overwhelmingly receptive to beauty and intensity in the world; in letters, he wrote to a friend about the hours he spent watching deer at the zoo. i recognized a lot of romantic sublimity in his earlier poems, in the descriptions of potential in the animals' limbs and gazes, the latent power sugge...more

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Jul 02, 2009 Kasandra rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I. Should. Not. Write. Again. Ever.

BUT YOU SHOULD READ THIS (especially, if, like me, you first read Rilke as a lovesick teenager writing horrible poetry and liked his work okay, and didn't think about him again for years)...

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Jun 11, 2008 Andy rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Prose prozacs

Shelves: poetry-corner, kool-imports

Anybody who tells you that Germans are a gruff, unromantic bunch never read Rilke. This is the most delicate, romantic poetry I've ever read.
"If you are the dreamer, then I am the dream.
But when you want to wake, I am your wish."

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Mar 21, 2013 Ami rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2013

I liked his early stuff better.

Really, though, I had no idea Rilke was so goth. Poems with first lines like, "You darkness that I come from," and "I am too alone in this world,"; I would have loved this in high school, although I was pretty into it now. Selections from A Book for the Hours of Prayer were my favorite, although the Sonnets to Orpheus were pretty cool too, and I found very interesting the translator's commentary about Rilke's beliefs that the poems were almost dictated from an outs...more

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Nov 01, 2008 julia rated it 5 of 5 stars

I love this because the translation really nails the purity and depth of the poems. I also enjoyed the history of the poems and where Rilke was in his life during the periods. I'm sure I'll buy this one to read over and over.

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Mar 30, 2013 Matthew Gallaway rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This book is worth fifty stars alone for the opening essay by Robert Hass, which traces the evolution of Rilke from an artist who craves an understanding of the unknown space within him, to his comprehension that this space represents death, and finally to the idea that writing poetry about this space is the life that arises from death. (I'm not really doing it justice, but just to give you an idea.) As for the poems themselves, the translations seem very adept and beautiful to me (not that I ca...more

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Aug 05, 2011 Beth rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: poetry

The poems I don't love are usually ones I don't 'get'. The poems I love are among the most exquisite I've ever read. Astonishingly beautiful.

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Aug 08, 2009 Geoff rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites

I have read many of the poems in this collection dozens of times, by a handful of different translators, and I never, ever tire of Rilke. No modern poet goes as far into himself, into "the invisible, unheard center", and returns with such gems, really revelations. Revelatory image succeeds revelatory image. Am I being a bit too grandiose? That's fine, I think Rilke is the greatest poet of the 20th century, and high praise is not praise enough. A pure writer. Mitchell's translations are gorgeous...more

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About Rainer Maria Rilke

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 mos...more

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Rilke's Book of Hours: Love Poems to God

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Selected Poems of Rainer Maria Rilke

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