Rilke's Book of Hours: Love Poems to God by

Rainer Maria Rilke

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Original Title: Rilke's Book of Hours

ISBN: 1573225851
ISBN13: 9781573225854
Autor: Rainer Maria Rilke/Anita Barrows (Translator)/ Joanna Macy (Translator)
Rating: 4.8 of 5 stars (2684) counts
Original Format: Paperback, 166 pages
Download Format: PDF, FB2, DJVU, iBook.
Published: April 1st 1997 / by Riverhead Books / (first published 1905)
Language: English
Genre(s):
Poetry- 524 users
Spirituality- 38 users
Religion- 14 users
European Literature >German Literature- 13 users
Nonfiction- 10 users
Classics- 10 users
Religion >Theology- 8 users
Philosophy- 7 users
Religion >Faith- 6 users
Literature- 4 users

Description:

At the beginning of this century, a young German poet returned from a journey to Russia, where
he had immersed himself in the spirituality he discovered there. He "received" a series of poems
about which he did not speak for a long time - he considered them sacred, and different from
anything else he ever had done and ever would do again. This poet saw the coming darkness of
the century, and saw the struggle we would have in our relationship to the divine. The poet was
Rainer Maria Rilke, and these love poems to God make up his Book of Hours.

About Author:

Rainer Maria Rilke is considered one of the German language's greatest 20th century poets.
His haunting images tend to focus on the difficulty of communion with the ineffable in an age of
disbelief, solitude, and profound anxiety themes that tend to position him as a transitional figure
between the traditional and the modernist poets.
He wrote in both verse and a highly lyrical prose. His two most famous verse sequences are the
Sonnets to Orpheus and the Duino Elegies; his two most famous prose works are the Letters to a
Young Poet and the semi-autobiographical The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge.
He also wrote more than 400 poems in French, dedicated to his homeland of choice, the canton of
Valais in Switzerland.

Other Editions:
- Rilke\'s Book of Hours: Love Poems to God (Paperback)

- : (Paperback)

- Poems from the Book of Hours (Paperback)

- Rilke\'s Book of Hours: Love Poems to God (Kindle Edition)

- Poems from the Book of Hours: Das Stundenbuch (Paperback)

Books By Author:

- Letters to a Young Poet

 - The Selected Poetry of Rainer Maria Rilke

- Duino Elegies

- The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge

- Sonnets to Orpheus

Books In The Series:

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Rewiews:
Dec 04, 2013
Meredith
Rated it: liked it
Shelves: poetry
My favorite poem of Rilke's is found in this book. I first read it in the bathroom of the Video Saloon
where it had been written with sharpie in the first stall.
"I am praying again, Awesome One"
(Ich bete wieder, du Elauchter)
You hear me again, as words
from the depths of me
rush toward you in the wind.
Ive been scattered in pieces, torn by conflict, mocked by laughter, washed down in drink.
In alleyways I sweep myself up
out of garbage and broken glass.
With my half-mouth I stammer you, who are eternal i
My favorite poem of Rilke's is found in this book. I first read it in the bathroom of the Video Saloon
where it had been written with sharpie in the first stall.
"I am praying again, Awesome One"
(Ich bete wieder, du Elauchter)
You hear me again, as words
from the depths of me
rush toward you in the wind.
Ive been scattered in pieces, torn by conflict, mocked by laughter, washed down in drink.
In alleyways I sweep myself up
out of garbage and broken glass.
With my half-mouth I stammer you, who are eternal in your symmetry.
I lift to you my half-hands
in wordless beseeching, that I may find again
the eyes with which I once beheld you.
I am a house gutted by fire
where only the guilty sometimes sleep
before the punishment that devours them
hounds them out in the open.
I am a city by the sea
sinking into a toxic tide.
I am strange to myself, as though someone unknown
had poisoned my mother as she carried me.
Its here in all the pieces of my shame
that now I find myself again.
I yearn to belong to something, to be contained
in an all-embracing mind that sees me
as a single thing.
I yearn to be held
in the great hands of your heart
oh let them take me now.
Into them I place these fragments, my life, and you, Godspend them however you want.
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