Rainer Maria Rilke
Humphrey Bower reviews 'Duino Elegies' by Rainer Maria Rilke, translated by Alison Croggon
Humphrey Bower
Sunday, 26 June 2022
Rainer Maria Rilke’s Duino Elegies were begun in a burst of inspiration while he was staying at Duino Castle near Trieste in 1912. Walking along the battlements after receiving a difficult business letter, he heard a mysterious voice calling to him from an approaching storm. Their composition was then interrupted by a personal and artistic crisis that lasted until 1922, when he finished them in an even more astonishing afflatus which also included the gift of their companion-masterpiece, the Sonnets to Orpheus, at the Château de Muzot in Switzerland.
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Published in
July 2022, no. 444