New Poems

Rilke, Rainer Maria, 1875-1926Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

4.6

Word count: 68K words
Chapters: 7

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.Neue Gedichte by Rainer Maria RilkeAuthor: Rilke, Rainer Maria, 1875-1926,Language: German, Class: PT: Language and Literatures: Germanic, Scandinavian, and Icelandic literatures, Release Date: Oct 15, 2010

Editor's review

Neue Gedichte (New Poems) is a major collection from Rilke's middle period, released free in the original German by Project Gutenberg. It marks Rilke's shift from early lyricism to the "thing poem," in which he sought to reach inner experience through close observation of objects themselves; the language is condensed and the imagery precise, and it deeply influenced twentieth-century modern poetry. Reading it gives a direct sense of how Rilke transformed visual experience into poetic form, and it is an important bridge to later works such as the Duino Elegies. The Gutenberg edition is easy to search by title and compare poem by poem, suited to close reading by German learners and as a source text for poetry scholars. Readers need not finish it in one sitting; they can choose object poems by title and savor them slowly, noting shifts in perspective and rhythm. As a public-domain electronic text it has few annotations, so first-time readers may wish to consult commentary or translations.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Intermediate to advanced language learners of German who wish to read original poetry closely
Literary readers studying Rilke's poetic transition and modern German poetry
Poetry lovers who enjoy thing poems and slow, attentive reading

Not a good fit for

Beginners who need detailed annotations and introductions to understand German poetry
Readers who prefer plotted narrative and lack patience for lyric poetry

Reading tips

Read in groups by title, starting with short thing poems before longer works, to gradually adapt to Rilke's way of observing.
Read each poem aloud once, noting German meter and line breaks, then revisit how the imagery unfolds layer by layer.
Keep a notebook of recurring images and color words to compare the techniques of different poems.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

Where does New Poems stand in Rilke's career?

It represents Rilke's middle period and marks his shift from early subjective lyricism to the object-centered "thing poem." The observational training of this phase laid the groundwork for the later Duino Elegies and Sonnets to Orpheus.

Can I read this book without knowing German?

Reading the original directly will be difficult, since Rilke's language is condensed and highly musical. It is best to read a reliable translation first to grasp the poetry, then compare it with the German to feel the rhythm and diction; if you only want the content, a translation will suffice.

Is the Gutenberg edition suitable for academic citation?

The Gutenberg edition is a public-domain electronic text suitable for general reading and preliminary research, but its layout and annotations are minimal. Formal academic citation should check page numbers against an authoritative edition and rely on print or scholarly editions.

Should I read it straight through from beginning to end?

Not necessarily. The poems are relatively independent, so you can skip around by theme or interest. Beginners might start with short, image-focused thing poems and move to longer pieces once they have found a reading rhythm.

Comments

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About the author

Rilke, Rainer Maria, 1875-1926 Author

Rilke, Rainer Maria (1875–1926) is one of the most influential poets in German-language literature. Publicly available information is limited, and details of his life should not be overstated. Judging from the thirteen works held in the collection, his writing spans poetry, prose and essays on art: Neue Gedichte and its sequel Der Neuen Gedichte: Anderer Teil are known for their distilled imagery and the "thing poem" approach, drawing existential experience from concrete objects; Das Stunden-Buch and Das Marien-Leben show a strong religious and meditative character; Die Aufzeichnungen des Malte Laurids Brigge portrays urban loneliness and perception through fragmentary narration; and Auguste Rodin reflects his close observation of the visual arts. His delicate, symbolic language has had a lasting influence on modern poetry in Chinese and on the German poetic tradition.