Rilke, Rainer Maria, << RIHL kuh, RY nuhr mah REE ah >> (1875-1926), was an important lyric poet in German literature and a major representative of the Symbolist movement. His poems are characterized by richness of imagery and melody and fine shades of meaning. They have a tone of self-examination and prophecy.
Rilke’s cycle of poems The Book of Hours (1905) expresses a longing for a mystic union with God. New Poems (1907, 1908) contains works that try to express the essence, or “idea,” of an object or experience. Rilke’s novel The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge (1910) is a highly innovative Modernist work in style and structure. It portrays the loneliness and confusion of a young poet searching for identity in turbulent Paris. The Duino Elegies (1923) and Sonnets to Orpheus (1923) are poems that praise human existence.
Rilke was born on Dec. 4, 1875, in Prague. He spent much of his life wandering through Europe. Rilke died on Dec. 29, 1926. A major English translation of his most important work was published as The Poetry of Rilke (2009).
