What to Say? #1:
 

Rilke's Sonnets to Orpheus
 

In my "Recent Reading" box at the top right of my home page you will see a list of the books that I've read recently. I've been meaning to write about these books, but sometimes they sit there for weeks because I just don't know what to say.

I think that my error has been the idea that the quality of what I write must be in some way  commensurate with the quality of the book I'm writing about. In many cases this is impossible, and this error has led others to write a lot of shitty criticism. 
 

Except for the greatest of the tragedies, Rilke's Sonnets to Orpheus and his Duino Elegies are the greatest poems I know of. Each book is a coherent whole made up of many distinct, vivid parts, and the density of the writing is unmatched.
 

When I was young I preferred poetry which I thought of as "natural", but to me a lot of those poems now seem easy and flat. Instead, I prefer poets like Nerval, Rilke, and Valery, who write artificially and use obscure and unnatural symbols. As subjects for poetry, the real lives of the people of today, including my own, have little appeal to me.
 

There are many disadvantages to growing old, but being able to read Rilke is one of the advantages. (Cue Yeats).

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A sketch map of Rilke's "Sonnette an Orpheus"

I am emersonj at gmail dot com.

Original materials copyright John J Emerson

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