Rilke: Man and Poet
Potpourri
by Appleton-Century-Crofts, $4.00.
“He remained a poet even when he was washing his hands,” a friend said of Rilke. His tragic and strangely beautiful life was a total submission to his genius, which at one time was silent for a decade and in twenty days poured out the great work of his last years. He feared anything, even the possession of a dog‚ that might become “too much of a relationship.” Though he met several women for whom his feelings reached a high pitch of exaltation, it was invariably he who retreated. During most of his adult life he was a wanderer, a cherished but lonely guest in other people’s houses. This first full-length biographical study to appear in the U.S. is written by a poet who knew Rilke and was a friend of his great patroness, Princess Marie von Thurn und Taxis.
The author, very wisely, has made lavish use of Rilke’s marvelous letters, and she brings to the reader a great many of his poems, in the German and in translation.