Book 1, The Selected Poetry of Rainer Maria Rilke : Chapter 7, Duino Elegies Summary

This book is dedicated to the elegy, which is a specific poetic form, so much so, that the ancient Greeks had a goddess Elegis, who was Mistress of the elegiac verse form. The tone of these poems is distinctive when contrasted with that of the others. The timing is also different. They are listed as written in both 1912 and 1922. The entire group runs approximately 50 pages, with the German on the left-hand page and the English translation printed out on the right hand side. The elegies are named by their number. Each of these is a few pages long.

The first one introduces the topic of angels. Once again poets seem like men and women a bit tipsy or drunk from the wine of...