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Quote by Rainer Maria Rilke

Work

The Selected Poetry of Rainer Maria Rilke

This volume brings together a selection of poems by Rainer Maria Rilke, a major figure in early 20th-century European literature. The collection spans his career, including pieces from his early, middle, and late periods, reflecting his evolving style from impressionistic and religious themes to more existential and modernist concerns. Known for his intense imagery and meditative tone, Rilke's poetry often explores solitude, love, death, and the search for transcendence. The selection typically includes well-known works such as those from 'The Book of Hours,' 'New Poems,' and the 'Duino Elegies,' offering readers an entry into his profound and influential poetic voice. more

Author

Rainer Maria Rilke
Rainer Maria Rilke

German poet known for his profound poetry and epistolary works. Rainer Maria Rilke's poetry style is unique, often exploring themes such as loneliness, love, and religious faith. more

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“As Hamlet said to Ophelia, ”God has given you one face, and you make yourself another." The battle between these two halves of identity...Who we are and who we pretend to be, is unwinnable. "Just as there are two sides to every story, there are two sides to every person. One that we reveal to the world and another we keep hidden inside. A duality governed by the balance of light and darkness, within each of us is the capacity for both good and evil. But those who are able to blur the moral dividing line hold the true power.”

“A phenomenon that a number of people have noted while in deep depression is the sense of being accompanied by a second self — a wraithlike observer who, not sharing the dementia of his double, is able to watch with dispassionate curiosity as his companion struggles against the oncoming disaster, or decides to embrace it. There is a theatrical quality about all this, and during the next several days, as I went about stolidly preparing for extinction, I couldn't shake off a sense of melodrama — a melodrama in which I, the victim-to-be of self-murder, was both the solitary actor and lone member of the audience.”

“You see, some people are born with a piece of night inside, and that hollow place can never be filled - not with all the good food or sunshine in the world. That emptiness cannot be banished, and so some days we wake with the feeling of the wind blowing through, and we must simply endure it as the boy did.”