In one of the most astonishing bursts of creativity ever recorded, within a period of three weeks in February 1922, Rilke completed the

(

), on which he had labored for ten years, and composed the 55 poems comprising both parts of the cycle

(

). In contrast to the

, which refer only occasionally to the form of the classical elegy, the

by and large conform to the form of the sonnet (fourteen lines consisting of two quatrains and two tercets), though taking considerable liberties in rhyme and meter. The cycle was written as a memorial to Vera Ouckama Knoop, a young woman dancer and friend of Rilke’s daughter Ruth, who had died three years earlier at the age of nineteen.

Though Rilke had through much of his

2084 words

Citation: Kovach, Thomas A.. "Sonette an Orpheus". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 19 January 2012 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=11481, accessed 23 November 2024.]

• View recommended reading for this article