Rilke, the Poetry of a Lifetime: The Book of Hours, New Poems, Sonnets, Orpheus

What is the course about?

Rilke’s contribution to 20th century literature has met with widespread acclaim: “the pre-eminent international poet” (Michael Hoffmann); the creator of “one of the most extraordinary, complex, and subtle intellectual worlds that modern culture has to offer” (Robert Vilain); “through him resounds the music of the universe” (Hermann Hesse). The attention given, on the other hand, to his recipes for personal fulfilment, creativity, and spiritual reawakening – encouraged by the poet himself in the immensely popular ‘Letters to a Young Poet’ – has sometimes taken the place of a detailed understanding of his verse.

This in-college course will, in sharp contrast, be an opportunity for each of us to cast a fresh eye on individual poems or cycles of poems representing the full range of Rilke’s artistry. There will be references to biography – Rilke the solitary, the nomad, the lover of women – but the emphasis throughout will be on each poem as an entity in its own right, and our experience of it. What are the secrets of its composition? How does it achieve its astonishing balance of inwardness – no modern poetry is more bounded, more tightly woven – and acute sensitivity to every facet of the world beyond?

What will we cover?

• The fervent, borrowed religiosity of ‘The Book of Hours’ [1905], negotiating a post-Christian intimacy with constant change and death; figures of resistance to the urban gehenna
• The outward gaze of the Parisian ‘New Poems’ [1902-7] capturing artistic and everyday phenomena in all their transient beauty and promise of transcendence: “the whole world for and of itself, as if it were running through him with all its manifold possibilities”
• The crisis point of ‘The Duino Elegies’ [1923], Rilke’s most conflicted statement on the search for meaning in a higher realm of the invisible, presided over by angelic intermediaries
• The return to earth and to pure song of the ‘Sonnets to Orpheus’ [1922-3], as if issuing in a single breath
• We’ll also look at a number of the uncollected poems and of the much underrated French poems [1922-26], muted but charmingly evanescent distillations of his lifetime’s work

What will I achieve?
By the end of this course you should be able to...

• Place detailed knowledge and understanding of a substantial number of Rilke’s poems within his oeuvre as a whole, and be able to discuss them with subtlety and precision
• Return to the wider discussion of his life and reputation with a sense that you have freshly experienced and evaluated his poetry for yourself

What level is the course and do I need any particular skills?

No previous knowledge is required. Anyone who enjoys close reading and is willing to take part in discussion is welcome.

How will I be taught, and will there be any work outside the class?

There will be a variety of teaching methods, including direct tutor input, power point and small group discussion. There will be opportunities to express why individually we are participating on the course and what we hope to take away from it. No work outside class apart from reading the texts circulated digitally by the tutor before each session.

Are there any other costs? Is there anything I need to bring?

There’s nothing you need buy as the texts for discussion will be provided. However, if you’re looking for a reasonably priced dual language Selected Poems, well-annotated and impressively wide-ranging, I strongly recommend the Ransom and Sutherland Oxford World’s Classics edition [2011]. For critical back-up, Charlie Louth’s ‘Rilke’ (Oxford 2020) is outstanding.

When I've finished, what course can I do next?

Look for other courses in our Literature programme under History, Culture and Humanities/Literature at www.citylit.ac.uk.