Rilke's Duino Elegies: An Interpretation

Rilke’s Duino Elegies: An Interpretation is the product of Romano Guardini’s longstanding preoccupation with that passionate and enigmatic poem. The Duino Elegies express the fundamental perceptions and ideas of perhaps the most lyrical German poet of modern times. Indeed, Guardini deemed Rilke both an important voice in the evaluation of their own age and a prophet of the prospects and perils of the future. His Elegies figured prominently in that prophetic work, hence their interpretation is a heady task, but one to which Guardini is eminently equal. Poetry, according to Guardini, is always aimed toward clarifying the meaning of existence. Thus, “poetry is an affirmation, not simply of what the poet feels or thinks, but also of what is.” This affirmative action of poetry involves two steps: an assertion of reality and an expression of how one experiences that reality. Subtle in its reading and sensitive in its exposition of the subject matter, Guardini’s Interpretation is an unparalleled treatment of both Rilke the poet and Rilke the person.