Rainer Maria Rilke is frequently acclaimed as the greatest poet writing in German in the twentieth century, and the Duino Elegies are his crowning achievement as a poet. This hymnic verse draws creatively on a tradition of elegiac utterance in German while radically extending that language to the limits of its expressive powers in image and allusion.
The ten readings that make up this book, by members and former members of the Faculty of Modern and Medieval Languages at Cambridge, seek both to come to terms with the problems of Rilke's language and imagery, and to bring out their poetic qualities. Commentary and text are interwoven in such a way that the reader is taken step by step into Rilke's world, while fresh English translations are provided for those unable to read the original German. As close readings, the interpretations confront the reader with the great themes of Rilke's oeuvre, in a cycle that moves gradually, but with growing confidence, to an acceptance of the limitations of human life and death.