Abstract
The collection Sonette an Orpheus, by Rainer Maria Rilke (1923), is discussed and interpreted as having two functions. First, it constitutes an elegiac composition honoring the memory of a prematurely deceased young lady, and second -and most important- it obliquely suggests and illustrates his personal poetics. His sonnets A-l, B-5, B-6, B-28 and the last one B-29, are presented in a precise rhyming translation into Greek, and their individual symbolic or structural features (e.g., tree, woods, hearing, ear, melody, rose, anemone etc.) are explained as personal signs signifying beauty, transience, vulnerability, emotion, inspiration, creativity etc. which constitute the main themes and artistic concerns of a mature and almost existential Rilke, intimating how he functions as a poet.
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