Rainer Maria Rilke

Alfred D. White (Cardiff University)
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Rilke’s fame is based on steely resolution never to do the expected, the normal, the ordinary, the respectable; never to accept responsibility, to be tied down, to be forced to labour – except by his inner voice which told him that his unsociability would be rewarded by great poetic inspirations. He set out to be lonely, refusing the comfort of companionship, and positively encouraging neuroses. In just one of his poems, he declared, there is more reality than in all his human relationships. His greatest poems stand between French and German traditions, symbolism and subjectivity, set forms and free verse, classical restraint and romantic exuberance, at once bending humbly to the function of a mediator of greater realities and revelling in a self-aggrandising awareness of the divinity…

3053 words

Citation: White, Alfred D.. "Rainer Maria Rilke". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 10 December 2004 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=3793, accessed 19 March 2024.]

3793 Rainer Maria Rilke 1 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

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