Rainer Maria Rilke was a modern poet who was born in 1875 in Prague. He spoke German. His “Duino Elegies” and “Sonnets To Orpheus” are collected in a work entitled “In Praise of Mortality.” Rainer Maria Rilke’s poetry calls his reader to appreciate life and to accept his or her own mortality. He writes much about the Divine and how it can only use humans because they are ephemeral. His poetry sounds almost zen buddhist in tone, reminding his reader of impermanence and the transcience of life itself as well as the world. Rilke also mentions nature and especially animals, admiring animals for the way they percieve the world. He says humans are the only creatures that look backwards in time and are the only creatures that seem to labour burdened under their own lives’ weight. Rilke also mentions the Machine and how humans have created it and that since humans have created it is should serve humanity, but that instead it enslaves humanity both creating and destroying equally. Rilke writes as one who is in love with life itself, a human being who has passion and desires and hungers and who can enjoy life to its fullest because of his mortality. He writes that only humans conceive of themselves as proceeding without an end and that animals deaths for them are already completed. Because of this way of percieving, animals can see a flower blooming forever in the moment. He also praises animals’ ability to listen. In one his “Sonnets to Orpheus,” Rilke writes of a child eating an apple and basically says that the taste is nameless, the fruit itself, humans have called apple, but that that apple is the work of sun and earth and an immense act of condensed sweetness all devoured in one moment of pleasure by a child. Rilke also writes that humans are simply children of nature. In fact Rilke writes lofty praise of nature and animals and mortality itself and calls his readers to enjoy the moments of life fully and to accept the fact that he or she will cease to be one day. Rilke writes, “Be. And at the same time know what it is not to be.” What a challenge to his reader. In other words simply exist and at the same time no what it is not to exist. Rainer Maria Rilke is an amazing modern poet who calls his readers to live and enjoy life to its fullest by accepting his or her own mortality. Rilke praises nature, sounds buddhist in his poetry and lofts much praise on animals and their abilities and the way they perceive things. Many literary devices that are all used effectively to create the masterworks, “Duino Elegies” and “Sonnets to Orpheus” which are contained in the collection “In Praise of Mortality.”

Rainer Maria Rilke was a modern poet who was born in 1875 in Prague. He spoke German. His “Duino Elegies” and “Sonnets To Orpheus” are collected in a work entitled “In Praise of Mortality.” Rainer Maria Rilke’s poetry calls his reader to appreciate life and to accept his or her own mortality. He writes much about the Divine and how it can only use humans because they are ephemeral. His poetry sounds almost zen buddhist in tone, reminding his reader of impermanence and the transcience of life itself as well as the world. Rilke also mentions nature and especially animals, admiring animals for the way they percieve the world. He says humans are the only creatures that look backwards in time and are the only creatures that seem to labour burdened under their own lives’ weight. Rilke also mentions the Machine and how humans have created it and that since humans have created it is should serve humanity, but that instead it enslaves humanity both creating and destroying equally. Rilke writes as one who is in love with life itself, a human being who has passion and desires and hungers and who can enjoy life to its fullest because of his mortality. He writes that only humans conceive of themselves as proceeding without an end and that animals deaths for them are already completed. Because of this way of percieving, animals can see a flower blooming forever in the moment. He also praises animals’ ability to listen. In one his “Sonnets to Orpheus,” Rilke writes of a child eating an apple and basically says that the taste is nameless, the fruit itself, humans have called apple, but that that apple is the work of sun and earth and an immense act of condensed sweetness all devoured in one moment of pleasure by a child. Rilke also writes that humans are simply children of nature. In fact Rilke writes lofty praise of nature and animals and mortality itself and calls his readers to enjoy the moments of life fully and to accept the fact that he or she will cease to be one day. Rilke writes, “Be. And at the same time know what it is not to be.” What a challenge to his reader. In other words simply exist and at the same time no what it is not to exist. Rainer Maria Rilke is an amazing modern poet who calls his readers to live and enjoy life to its fullest by accepting his or her own mortality. Rilke praises nature, sounds buddhist in his poetry and lofts much praise on animals and their abilities and the way they perceive things. Many literary devices that are all used effectively to create the masterworks, “Duino Elegies” and “Sonnets to Orpheus” which are contained in the collection “In Praise of Mortality.”