Where Silence Reigns

By Rainer Maria Rilke

Book Overview

Where Silence Reigns, a sampling from his essays, notebooks, and letters, shows Rainer Maria Rilke (1875-1926), the pre-eminent modern poet of solitude and inwardness, seeking to reconcile his personal conflict between the claims of "life" and the claims of art. His subjects are commonplace, seemingly innocuous at times: the encounter between a man and a dog, a collection of dolls, a walk among trees. But always the deceptively simple external phenomenon is seen as the symbol, the catalyst of an intensely felt inner experience. As he confided to his friend Frau Wunderly-Volkart: "Oh, how often one longs to speak a few degrees more deeply My prose... lies deeper... but one gets only a minimal layer further down; one's left with a mere intimation of the kind of speech that may be possible THERE where silence reigns." In addition to occasional pieces and notebook entries, this volume contains selections from the strange and haunting "Dream-Book," the lyrical "Lay of the Love and Death of Cornet Christoph Rilke," and the entire "Rodin-Book"--Rilke's appreciation of the great sculptor whom he had served as secretary.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0811206971
• ISBN13: 9780811206976
• Release Date: January 1978
• Publisher: New Directions Publishing Corporation
• Length: 164 Pages
• Weight: 0.40 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.2" x 7.9"

Customer Reviews

Rilke & Silence

Rilke, as much of his work, is a writer which goes beyond the limitations of time. He has been, is, and will be through his work, which is time transcendent. The following book gives a glimpse of life so seemingly quiet, yet so unexpectedly full of questions. This book breaks into silence, and reveals the questions which lie in and behind silence. The book is a mastery of thought and feeling expressed both honestly and passionately, a true work of art!