by Hal Manogue
"Spring has come again. The earth is like a child that knows poems by heart, many, o many... For the vexation of long learning she gets the prize. Her teacher was strict. We liked the white in the old man's beard. And now we may ask what the green, the blue is called: She knows it, she knows! Earth having a holiday, lucky earth, play now with the children. We want to catch you, happy earth. The happiest will succeed. O what her teacher taught her, the many things. And what stands printed in roots and long difficult stems. She sings it, she sings!"
That poem is called "Erster Teil," from Ranier Maria Rilke's, "Sonnets To Orpheus," which is one of his greatest works. Rilke is considered the German language greatest 20th century poet. He was born in Prague in 1875 and had a very interesting life meeting; Rodin, Tolstoy and Freud. His first wife trained under Freud. He spent time in Munich, Paris and died in Switzerland in 1926. His epitaph reads: "Rose oh pure contradiction, joy of being no-one's sleep under so many lids."
When I first started to study poets and their works, Rilke was the second one to come to me through his writings. As you can see from the work above, he had a sense that everything was alive. The earth was its own masterpiece, but ours to enjoy. He wrote about his connection with his God and the search for a peaceful union through self awareness. His expanded vision of life was wonderfully expressed in his work. He knew there was more to him than what he saw in physical form. He suffered through the agony of a world war, that silenced his creative writing for many years. He worked to become who he was, yet struggled to identify completely with himself. His God, being a separate entity, existed in the unknown in his writings, but was always present within him.
Just like Rilke I can find my creativity, if I look. I create my world, as he did through his thoughts. I can be like the earth, a poem that I know by heart, if I look within myself and reconnect to my truth. I can be in love with spring and all seasons, by loving myself first. I can then see love in all life. That is happiness. That is success. A true love song!
"Spring has come again. The earth is like a child that knows poems by heart, many, o many... For the vexation of long learning she gets the prize. Her teacher was strict. We liked the white in the old man's beard. And now we may ask what the green, the blue is called: She knows it, she knows! Earth having a holiday, lucky earth, play now with the children. We want to catch you, happy earth. The happiest will succeed. O what her teacher taught her, the many things. And what stands printed in roots and long difficult stems. She sings it, she sings!"
That poem is called "Erster Teil," from Ranier Maria Rilke's, "Sonnets To Orpheus," which is one of his greatest works. Rilke is considered the German language greatest 20th century poet. He was born in Prague in 1875 and had a very interesting life meeting; Rodin, Tolstoy and Freud. His first wife trained under Freud. He spent time in Munich, Paris and died in Switzerland in 1926. His epitaph reads: "Rose oh pure contradiction, joy of being no-one's sleep under so many lids."
When I first started to study poets and their works, Rilke was the second one to come to me through his writings. As you can see from the work above, he had a sense that everything was alive. The earth was its own masterpiece, but ours to enjoy. He wrote about his connection with his God and the search for a peaceful union through self awareness. His expanded vision of life was wonderfully expressed in his work. He knew there was more to him than what he saw in physical form. He suffered through the agony of a world war, that silenced his creative writing for many years. He worked to become who he was, yet struggled to identify completely with himself. His God, being a separate entity, existed in the unknown in his writings, but was always present within him.
Just like Rilke I can find my creativity, if I look. I create my world, as he did through his thoughts. I can be like the earth, a poem that I know by heart, if I look within myself and reconnect to my truth. I can be in love with spring and all seasons, by loving myself first. I can then see love in all life. That is happiness. That is success. A true love song!
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