A Reader’s Guide to Rilke’s Sonnets to Orpheus

Writing with a clarity and fluency of style, Timothy J. Casey presents his second book on Rainer Maria Rilke, in a bilingual reader’s guide to Rilke’s Sonnets to Orpheus.

The guide begin, with an account of Rilke’s life and work as the context out of which the Sonnets to Orpheus have been given to literature. It goes on to give a detailed analysis of the long poem Orpheus. This is followed by a short chapter on the Duino Elegies with particular emphasis on the first, eighth, ninth and tenth elegies, as these seem to complement the Sonnets most and provide aids to understanding them. The main section of the study is an interpretation of the fifty-five Sonnets, taking each one in turn . All are reproduced in their entirety.