Sonnets to Orpheus by Rainer Maria Rilke

The Sonnets to Orpheus are a cycle of 55 sonnets written in 1922 by Rainer Maria Rilke  (1875–1926). He wrote the cycle during a three week period spent in a creative trance. He was inspired to begin writing by the news of the death of Wera Ouckama Knoop, a playmate of his daughter. He dedicated the sonnets to her memory.

(Sonnet XXI)
Spring has returned. The earth resembles
A little girl who has memorized
many poems….For all the trouble
of her long learning, she wins the prize.

Her teacher was strict. We loved the white
In the old man’s beard and shaggy eyebrows.
Now, whatever we ask about
the blue and the green, she knows, she knows!

Earth, overjoyed to be out on vacation,
play with the children. We long to catch up,
jubilant Earth. The happiest will win.

What her teacher taught her, the numberless Things,
and what lies hidden in stem and in deep
difficult root, she sings, she sings!

Deeper dive
Read all 55 sonnets
The Duino Elegies (written at the same time as Sonnets for Orpheus)
The Atlantic Monthly; April 1996; "To Work Is to Live Without Dying"; Volume 277, No. 4; pages 112-118.

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