As essential as the breath is for life, this is the relationship that which Rainer Maria Rilke saw for his writing and his peace. German lyrical poet, Rainer Maria Rilke, intertwined profound existential discussion surrounding beauty and suffering, with life and death in both his life and written works. Considered one of the most significant poets in the German language, Rilke’s writings conquer themes that tend to position him as a transitional figure between the traditional and the modernist poets. Rilke’s journey past his long accepted Catholic faith resounds in his works and causes his verse to echo a search of hope through philosophy and art. By the path of travel, Rilke found solitude a necessity for creative expression.
Before examining the poetry of Rilke, it is important to have background on the beginnings of Rilke’s life. Raised in a dysfunctional household in Prague, Rilke was the child of Josef Rilke and Sophie Entz. Once Josef and Sophie’s marriage ended, Rainer Maria Rilke was sent off to a military academy, where he then suffered a great deal (“Poetry Foundation”). After five years at the military academy, Rilke was
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To understand the solitude that Rainer Maria Rilke found and writes about is vital to the fruitfulness of connecting with his writings. Solitude for Rilke meant achieving a state in which his spirit was in complete harmony with itself (“Rainer Maria Rilke and Solitude”). This harmony provided Rilke with the idea that each individual contains a depth which must be entered into in order to find ease with the workings of the world. Rilke’s solitude is evident throughout his life and is specifically referenced in his writings, including his letters to Mr. Kappus in Letters to a Young Poet. Mr. Kappus writes Rilke and asks whether his writings are any good, to which Rilke shakes his head and
and that we should help those less fortunate than ourselves. In this I essay I have shown how successful the poet was in making me share this view by using his thoughtful and intense language, word-choice and imagery techniques.
The poems facilitate the investigation of human experience through illustrating life’s transience and the longevity of memory.
Letters to a Young Poet “Letter One”, written by Rainer Maria Rilke, is a letter written by Rilke which contains advice for the aforementioned poet in the title of the piece. The reason for Rilke writing this piece was that a young, inexperienced poet sent Rilke a letter along with the poet’s own poems, which were called “My Soul” and “To Leopardi.” Rilke informs the poet that he is not comfortable with giving criticism, saying that “Nothing touches a work of art so little as words of criticism,” (p. 5). Instead of giving criticism, Rilke advises the poet on what first steps he should take in order to pursue a serious career in writing literature.
"The name of the piece was something else, but she called it ‘Solitude.' When she heard it there came before her imagination the figure of a man standing beside a desolate rock on the seashore. He was naked. His attitude was one of hopeless resignation as he looked toward a distant bird winging its flight away from him."(47)
Rilke, Rainer Maria. Letters to a Young Poet. New York: Penguin, 2013. Print.
These lines portray that loneliness is merely a state of mind rather than a physical circumstance. Not only, but the line “I have found that no exertion of the legs can bring two minds much nearer to one another,” proves that while two individuals can physically be close, it does not mean that they are close intellectually (109). In other words, Thoreau not only believes that genuine loneliness derives from meaningless, mindless interaction, but also that solitude enables self-discovery and true
The Theme of Loss in Poetry Provide a sample of poetry from a range of authors, each of whom portrays a different character. the theme of loss in some way. Anthology Introduction The object of this collection is to provide a sample of poetry from a range of authors, each of whom portray the theme of ‘loss’ in some way. The ‘Loss’ has been a recurring theme in literature for centuries, from.
The theme of death in the poems “War Photographer”, “Remember”, and “Mother in a Refugee Camp” were all portrayed in different forms to explore death and the suffering it brings. The variations of death in the three poems create a diverse image of death, which some people can relate to through the different situations of loss. “Remember” by Christina Rossetti fashions an image of death because the speaker wanted her husband to remember all the memories they had shared during her life. Rossetti found it necessary to portray death as a spiritual place rather than a physical state of decomposition so that she can finally escape to a place of silence to avoid all the darkness in her life. “War Photographer” by Carol Ann Duffy is about a man who takes photographs of death in vivid, dark and disturbing images of conflict, which Duffy conveys thoroughly throughout the poem to powerfully showcase his grief and disheartening on the situation. “A Mother in a Refugee camp” by Chinua Achebe, displays the struggles of a mother desperately trying to support and save her child while writhing in her caressing arms at death’s doors. These are the poems that represent the theme of death.
Human mind is a double edge sword: it gives us wonderful and destructive ideas in the same time. In loneliness, the mind can create profound suffering. In 1886, Leo Tolstoy wrote the Death of Ivan Ilyich and shed a light on loneliness and suffering. Through narrating Ivan’s inner struggle with his illness, Tolstoy showed how social isolation can exacerbate mental suffering. The book started with Ivan’s funeral and moved rapidly through his early life. Ivan lives a life with comfort and social conformity. However, this seemingly ordinary and happy life ended when he fell putting up the curtains. As minor signs of illness show up, he starts to struggle with isolation and fear. His doctors’ irresponsiveness to his questions started his mental suffering and this suffering exacerbated as he is isolated from his friends and family. As Ivan is tortured by both physical and mental pain in loneliness, he finally listens to “the voice of his soul, to the course of thoughts arising in him” (45). In a series of reflection, he asks himself deep philosophical questions about the meaning of life and death. However, the loneliness created by the isolation from his doctors,
Robert Frost, an infamous poet best known for his original poetic technique, displays a reoccurring idea or theme of loneliness and isolation throughout many of his published works. The ways in which Frost represents and symbolizes ideas of solitude and desolation in poems are somehow slightly or very different. Loneliness and isolation are illustrated through Frost’s use of the dark night as well as depression in “Acquainted With the Night”, the objects the speaker encounters in “Waiting”, and the sense of abandonment and death in “Ghost House.”
Wordsworth suffers solitude, even as he celebrates it. Alone, the poet can explore his own consciousness; it exists at both poles of the notion of ‘emotion recollected in tranquillity’, and is the dominant developmental mode of Wordsworth’s childhood as depicted in The Prelude (1805). Independence is what is exalted in his introduction to that poem: he greets the ‘gentle breeze’ as a ‘captive… set free’ from the ‘vast city’ which has been as a ‘prison’ to his spirit. The oppression of city living is alleviated in this opening reacquisition of isolation; the relief is evident: ‘I breathe again’, ‘that burthen of my own unnatural self [is shaken off], /The heavy weight of many a weary day/ Not mine, and such as were not made for me’. In this, the commencing statement of his autobiography, the independence of solitude is represented as the essential quality of his poetic felicity. The ‘egoistical sublime’ observed by Keats is manifest in this poetry in a separation from other men, rather than in that of a Byron, whose narrators’ egotisms are evinced by their social interactions. Wordsworth’s company is nature; his sister, his wife, his children exist as assimilations rather than relationships.
The theme of the poem “The Bells”, by Edgar Allan Poe, is the lifespan and progression of human existence. The mood is split into four different parts because the poem shows the different stages of life and emotion. First, the mood starts off as excitement and joy. This stage represents childhood and youth. Then, the mood changes into celebration and hope.
As humans and individuals we are alone, completely separate from any other consciousness. We’re trapped in our own heads, and only our words and actions, mere symbols of our soul and the truth of ourselves, can communicate our existence to any other person. For better or for worse, we know that no symbol functions as a truly perfect representation, and because of this, the individual exists in solitude. But despite all this aloneness, in his “Letters to a Young Poet” Rilke would tell us that love has a purpose in our lives and can act as a positive force. These letters were written between Rilke and Franz Kappus over several years, and began when Kappus wrote to him seeking advice on his own poems.
The poem “Ode to the West Wind” by PB Shelley is a “highly thought provoking poem” (Rajasekharuni.) that makes the readers think about what makes life pleasant and unpleasant. The speaker in the poem tells that the answer lies “in the attitude of the liver” (Rajasekharuni). As humans, we find the cycle of seasons as natural but complain when we have to endure good and bad times. We do not see the course of the natural world in the same way as we see changes such as revolutions and war. Figuratively, the poet indicates attitudes of people who get depressed when they go through hardships, but little do they know that happiness is better enjoyed after having felt the sadness. Happiness is only a relative experience. PB Shelley treats the poem as an autobiographical note. His life was filled with difficulties but every time he fell, he sprung with rejuvenated spirits. The poem allegorizes the role of the poet as the voice of change and revolution. Shelley realizes that he cannot in actual life, rise to the height of imaginative perfection, which was his wish.
..., nature removes his stresses of life and provides peace and comfort. The poet keeps repeating“home” to emphasize on the point that harmony can only be found and felt while at home.“oh! Leave me to myself,” the writer is all alone in nature with no one around to console him.When the writer is sad, he prefers isolating himself but being surrounded by nature which takes away his pain and sorrows. It is clear from the poem that the writer experiences some relief when surrounded by nature and it’s only in the beauty of nature the writer can spend time thinking about.The poet successfully conveys nature as harmonious