Rainer Maria Rilke's the Book of Hours

"Rainer Maria Rilke is arguably the most important modern German-language poet. His New Poems, Duino Elegies, and Sonnets to Orpheus are considered pillars of twentieth-century poetry. Yet his earlier verse is less known in the English-speaking world. The Book of Hours, written in three bursts between 1899 and 1903, is Rilke's most formative work, covering a crucial period in his rapid ascent from fin-de-siecle epigone to distinctive modern voice. The poems are crucial documents of Rilke's development, from his tour around Russia with Lou Andreas-Salome, through his hasty marriage to Clara Westhoff in the artists' community of Worpswede, to his turn toward the urban modernity of Paris. Rilke assumes the persona of an artist-monk undertaking the Romantics' journey into the self, speaking to God as part transcendent deity, part needy neighbor. Echoes of his juvenile style persist, yet by the end of the book the influence of the sculptor Rodin is discernible in the distinctive idiom of urbanity, in the terminology of "things," and in Rilke's turn to the everyday world around him." "The Book of Hours can be read simply for its luminous lyricism, captured in Susan Ranson's superb new translation, which reproduces the music of the original German with impressive fluidity. This version is the most nuanced and sensitive yet available in English, a glittering re-imagination of Rilke's complex rhythm and meter. Scholarly rigor is provided by the substantial supporting material: an in-depth introduction explains the context of the work and elucidates its major themes, while the poem-by-poem commentary is helpful to the student and the general reader. A translator's note, discussing the technical problems of rhythm, meter, and rhyme that the translator of Rilke faces, completes the volume."--BOOK JACKET.Rilke, Rainer Maria is the author of 'Rainer Maria Rilke's the Book of Hours', published 2008 under ISBN 9781571133809 and ISBN 1571133801.