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Bibliotech Press The Duino Elegies by Rainer Maria Rilke
The Duino Elegies (German: Duineser Elegien) are a collection of ten elegies written by the BohemianAustrian poet Rainer Maria Rilke (18751926). Rilke who is widely recognized as one of the most lyrically intense Germanlanguage poets began writing the elegies in 1912 while a guest of Princess Marie von Thurn und Taxis (18551934) at Duino Castle near Trieste on the Adriatic Sea. The poems 859 lines long in total were dedicated to the Princess upon their publication in 1923. During this tenyear period the elegies languished incomplete for long stretches of time as Rilke suffered frequently from severe depressionsome of which was caused by the events of World War I and being conscripted into military service. Aside from brief episodes of writing in 1913 and 1915 Rilke did not return to the work until a few years after the war ended. With a sudden renewed inspirationwriting in a frantic pace he described as a boundless storm a hurricane of the spirithe completed the collection in February 1922 while staying at Château de Muzot in Veyras in Switzerlands Rhone Valley. After their publication in 1923 and Rilkes death in 1926 the Duino Elegies were quickly recognized by critics and scholars as his most important work. (wikipedia.org)show more