Sonnets to Orpheus
A 55-sonnet cycle written in a three-week creative storm.
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The Sonnets to Orpheus (German: Die Sonette an Orpheus) are a cycle of 55 sonnets written in 1922 by the Bohemian-Austrian poet Rainer Maria Rilke. First published the following year, the cycle was inspired by the death of Wera Ouckama Knoop, a playmate of Rilke's daughter, and dedicated as a memorial to her memory. Written in a three-week period Rilke described as a 'savage creative storm,' the sonnets are considered, alongside the Duino Elegies, Rilke's masterpieces and the highest expressions of his talent.
Background
Rilke wrote the Sonnets to Orpheus in February 1922 while living at the Château de Muzot in Switzerland, a thirteenth-century manor without gas or electricity provided rent-free by patron Werner Reinhart. The cycle was composed in two bursts: the first 26 sonnets between 2 and 5 February, then, after completing the Duino Elegies on 11 February, the remaining 29 sonnets in less than two weeks. Rilke referred to this period as a 'savage creative storm' and considered both collections 'of the same birth.'
The sonnets are based on the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice, drawing primarily from Ovid's Metamorphoses and Virgil's Georgics. Wera appears in frequent references, both direct and indirect as a 'dancer' or the mythical Eurydice. Rilke wrote to Wera's mother that her ghost was 'commanding and impelling' him to write. The sonnets vary in rhyme schemes and meters, with dactylic and trochaic feet most common, and employ enjambment that breaks through verse structure.
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Sources
Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.
- Wikipedia: Sonnets to Orpheus (CC BY-SA 4.0).
- Word definitions: the Codexery glossary, each quoted from its Wikipedia article.
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