Sonnets to Orpheus

The Sonnets to Orpheus are cycle of sonnets written by German-language poet Rainer Maria Rilke (1875 – 1926) in 1922. He dedicated them as a memorial (Grab-Mal, literally "grave-marker") for Vera Ouckama Knoop (1900 – 1919), a playmate of Rilke's daughter Ruth.

Form and style

There are 55 sonnets in the sequence, divided into two sections, the first of 26 and the second of 29. The sonnets follow certain trends, but they include many different forms. All of the sonnets are composed of two quartets followed by two triplets. Additionally, all of the sonnets have some rhyme scheme, generally a/b/a/b c/d/c/d or a/b/b/a c/d/d/c in the quartets and e/e/f g/g/f, e/f/g e/f/g or e/f/g g/f/e in the triplets. The sonnets are also all metered, but their meters vary more greatly between poems; dactyllic and trochaic are the most common feet, with line length varying greatly, sometimes even within a particular sonnet.

Composition

The vast majority of the sonnets were written in an extremely short period of time, from February 2-5, 1922, at the Chateau de Muzot in Switzerland. The rest of the poems were composed during the rest of the month of February. During this time, Rilke was also working on his masterpiece the Duino Elegies. The content of the sonnets is, as is typical of Rilke, highly metaphorical. The character of Orpheus (whom Rilke refers to as the "god with the lyre") appears several times in the cycle, as do other mythical characters such as Daphne. There are also biblical allusions, including a reference to Esau. Other themes involve animals, peoples of different cultures, and time and death. Although Rilke claimed that the entire cycle was inspired by Vera, she appears as a character in only one of the poems. He insisted, however, that "Vera's own figure [...] nevertheless governs and moves the course of the whole"^[1]

External links

• Spiegel Online - Die Sonette an Orpheus

References

1. ^ Letter to Gertrud Ouckama Knoop, dated 20 April 1923; quoted in Snow, Edward, trans. and ed., Sonnets to Orpheus by Rainer Maria Rilke, bilingual edition, North Point Press, New York, 2004.