Sonnets to Orpheus (Magill Book Reviews)
At a glance:
- Author: Rainer Maria Rilke
- First Published: 1923
- Type of Work: Lyric Poetry
- Genres: Poetry, Sonnet
- Subjects: Mythology or myths, Europe or Europeans, Religion, Poetry or poets, 1920’s, God, Life, philosophy of, Germany or German people, Greece or Greek people, Transcendentalism, Angels
Rilke, the preeminent German poet of the early 20th century, invokes the name of Orpheus as a means of renewing the myth of the singer who experiences death of a love one yet is able to transform loss and sorrow into song of transcending power. Memory of the divine singer lightens the modern poet’s lamentation over our ephemeral existence and enables the poet to praise the frail beauty of art and the natural world.
Yet modern technology and urban societies threaten to destroy nature and obliterate the past. Only a quiet and humble reconnection to venerable traditions and the...
[The entire page is 518 words long]
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