The Pendulum of Poetry: Metaphor and Mediation in Rilke's "Duineser Elegien" Author(s): Eleanor E.

ter Horst Reviewed work(s): Source: The German Quarterly, Vol. 79, No. 3, Focus on Literature around 1900 (Summer, 2006), pp. 308-328 Published by: Blackwell Publishing on behalf of the American Association of Teachers of German Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/27675953 . Accessed: 18/03/2012 10:42
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Eleanor

E. ter Horst

Clarion University

The Pendulum of Poetry: Metaphor and in Rilke's Duineser Elegien Mediation

In his essay, "Po?sie et pens?e abstraite," the French Symbolist poet Paul the philosophical Val?ry describes poetry as a pendulum swinging between ideas expressed ("la Pens?e") and the sonorous qualities of language ("la Voix"): "Entre la Voix et la Pens?e, entre la Pens?e et la Voix, entre la Pr?sence et l'Absence, oscille le pendule po?tique" (1333). The same oscillation occurs in on poetry, with some critics to the critical writing paying closer attention ideas explored in the poems, and others focusing on the linguistic expression of these ideas, on such devices as rhythm, assonance, and alliteration, aswell as on the use of for Val?ry, the swinging of the figurative language. While, between sound and meaning ("son" and "sens") unifies these poetic pendulum two aspects of language that are separated in everyday discourse, for critics of Rilke's poetry the pendulum of criticism has swung unevenly towards the side of ideas. Since Martin Heidegger's 1946 essay, "Wozu Dichter?" the context. While has been to interpret Rilke's poetry in a philosophical tendency essay shows great sensitivity to Rilke's poetic voice in attempting Heidegger's to determine the place of poetry in the modern world,1 some critics have taken this philosophizing tendency to a greater extreme, believing that Rilke can be without reference to the original German, i.e., that the sonorous interpreted of the language are incidental and not an integral part of the poetry's qualities Even when Rilke's poetry is read in German, critics have tended to meaning. "translate" his dense metaphors into philosophical language.2 Paul de Man to move noted this tendency and, in Allegories of Reading, attempted the of criticism towards the linguistic dimension of Rilke's poetry (25). pendulum Since then, some critics have followed his lead in emphasizing this aspect of Rilke's poetry and prose works.3 Others have turned the philosophical mode of criticism in amore literary direction by focusing on Rilke's links with such as Romanticism, movements and Modernism.4 Symbolism, into Rilke studies. He readings introduced a new direction that the poetry's overt assertions are contradicted argues by its linguistic structure. Thus, the "promise" of finding significance in poetry coexists with the "lie," or "loss of referentiality" in figurai language (47-55). For de Man, Rilke's notion of "Figur" differs from a traditional metaphor, which suggests De Man's TheGermanQuarterly 79.3 (Summer2006) 308

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"the potential identification of tenor and vehicle" (46). Rilke's "Figuren," on the other hand, are characterized by the renunciation of stable meaning (47).5 in that it demonstrates how metaphor My reading differs from de Man's of "promise" and "lie" on which de Man bases his escapes the very dichotomy Recent work on metaphor and literary analysis. by linguists, philosophers, critics has suggested that this trope eludes such categories entirely: to speak or write metaphorically is to make a statement that is neither literally true nor cannot be characterized as lies, but they can possibly change false.6 Metaphors the way inwhich we view human beings, concepts, or relationships.71 argue to simultaneously that it is this potential of metaphor bring together and that is highlighted and ex separate two terms (objects, persons, concepts) in Rilke's poetry.8 He expands this potentiality the use of the panded through in his metaphors and similes and thus creates a mode of subjunctive mood existence outside the categories of truth and falsehood, presence and absence, being and non-being. While Rilke employs the subjunctive as well as other modes that escape the dichotomies of truth and falsehood, such as the imperative and the inter his poetry, they are most noticeably present in his rogative, throughout critics have remarked, in passing, on Rilke's use of Duineser Elegien. Many these modes;9 however, an analysis of the function and effect of these distinc is still lacking. tively Rilkean linguistic features in conj unction with metaphor My project focuses on the use of the subjunctive with figurative language, but also discusses its links with the imperative and interrogative. All three modes create a state that hovers between being and non-being, real and unreal, join in particular, reflects both the ing and disjoining. The subjunctive mood, and the rejection of (thematic) tension between the desire for transcendence the divine, and the (linguistic) joining and disjoining of the two terms (i.e., "tenor" and "vehicle")10 created by metaphor and simile. de Man's brief discussion of the Elegien does not remark on Significantly, the use of the subjunctive, but focuses rather on the imperative, which he associates with the "messianic" qualities of Rilke's poetry. For de Man, the and the Sonette an Orpheus represent a relapse into a narrative mode, Elegien which Rilke had previously abandoned with the more "figurai" poems of the Neue Gedichte (49). De Man's emphasis on the figurai language usually associ ated with lyric poetry as opposed to that of the more content-based narrative may have led him to overlook the way inwhich figurai language functions within the Elegien, as a way of creating a potential universe that hovers In this situation, the overt statements of the between being and non-being.11 to the do not exist in opposition read in all their complexity, text, when dimension of the poem, but rather the two aspects strengthen each linguistic can illuminate, other. Thus, an examination of Rilke's metaphors if not some of the contradictions that still puzzle resolve, baffling interpreters concerned with his poetry's themes. For example, the speaker at certain

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or union with points in the Duineser Elegien seems to long for transcendence the divine, and at other points appears to accept the limitations of earthly existence, which, he claims, it is the poet's task to preserve and celebrate.12 Some critics seek to resolve these contradictions by positing a "development" in Rilke's thinking away from regressive Romantic longing for the divine and towards amore mature, Modernist of human limitations.13 I will acceptance that this productive tension between the desire to transcend argue, however, and the impossibility of transcendence iswhat makes (and undesirability) Rilke's poetry possible. The gaps that exist in the poetic text between human and divine, between lover and beloved, between the two terms of the meta or simile, form the basis of Rilke's poetic expression. phor lines of the Elegien emphasize the distance between the opening and the angel as addressee. The speaker does not address the angel speaker but rather reflects on the possibility of directly, as in classical apostrophe, communication with such a higher being. Rilke uses the subjunctive and in to express a potential for transcendence: terrogative concurrently Wer, wenn
Ordnungen?

The

ich schriee, h?rte mich denn aus der Engel

und gesetzt selbst, es n?hme

einermich pl?tzlich ans Herz: ich verginge von seinem st?rkerenDasein. (11-4) The use of the subjunctive and interrogative in the first two lines points to the to another realm of existence as represented elusiveness of any relationship statement here by angels; yet the following (lines 2-4) indicates a desire to establish this relationship, and at the same time an awareness of its capacity to be fatal to the speaker. to a transcendent The ambiguities of this relationship realm are further between complicated by the traditional view of angels as intermediaries humans and god, so that even a direct contact with an angel does not ensure access to the divine. Rilke's portrayal of the angels in the Elegien deviates from as other critics have pointed out,14 but the idea, rooted conventional theology, in its derivation from the Greek "?yye^oc" or messenger, of the angel as inter is key to an understanding of its function in the Duineser Elegien. The mediary First Elegy questions the capacity of the speaker's voice to be heard and, this very question, establishes the existence of the poetic voice. The through in the First Elegy gap that exists between human speaker and divine mediator contrasts with the unity of human and divine as found inmuch mystical writ this unity is traditionally ing where expressed as a love relationship. While is indeed suggested in the second and third lines of the First such closeness Elegy: "es n?hme / einer mich pl?tzlich ans Herz," the hint of sexual contact between human and angel, which has the potential to be fatal to the human ("ich verginge"), must be examined in light of the ambivalent por participant trayal of sexual relationships throughout the Elegien.

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the divine, for an unmediated love unity with longing for mystical are shown to be interrelated in the First and for unity of meaning relationship, the Duineser Elegy. All such desires are expressed and developed throughout at the same time as their existence is called into question. The First Elegien the balance between Elegy establishes joining and separation that allows to be meaningful and simultaneously metaphors permits the relationships as well as between human between and angel, to exist. In the lovers, being First Elegy, a description of love relationships between human beings follows the above passage about the relationship between speaker and angel. The poet that unrequited or deserted lovers (die "Verlassenen") suggests the possibility are more of love than satisfied lovers (die "Gestillten"). Women who capable are abandoned by their lovers, he implies, can identify with Gaspara Stampa, the 16th-century Italian poet who transformed her disappointment about an unfaithful lover into poetry: The Hast du der Gaspara Stampa denn gen?gend gedacht, da? irgend einM?dchen, dem der Geliebte entging, am gesteigerten Beispiel w?rde wie sie? (145^18) dieser Liebenden f?hlt: da? ich The poet suggests that the relationship of a girl to her unfaithful lover should be mediated the example of Gaspara Stampa, who serves as a heightened by never com the girl can only approximate, model, but whom identify with The use of the subjunctive in the voice of the girl?"da? ich w?rde wie pletely. her desire to become Gaspara Stampa, but also suggests that sie"?expresses this desire has not been realized. Additionally, the question mark that ends the sentence raises doubt about the ability of the addressee ("du") to conceptual ize Stampa as amodel for young girls.15 Gaspara Stampa is proposed as amedi to their lovers, but the girls' ating device to structure these girls' relationships identification with her is doubly removed, by the use of the subjunctive and is used for similes. Saying that a girl is like Gaspara by the term "wie," which is not the same as saying that she isGaspara Stampa; a simile places Stampa more distance between the two terms than a metaphor.16 In this passage, the role of an angel: she is amediator, an example then, Gaspara Stampa plays that others wish to approximate; however, she is also portrayed as inaccessi both temporally and linguistically. ble, This interplay between closeness and separation continues in the meta that follows the references to Gaspara Stampa: phor Ist es nicht Zeit, da? wir liebend uns vom Geliebten befrein und es bebend bestehn: wie der Pfeil die Sehne besteht, um gesammelt imAbsprung mehr zu sein als er selbst.Denn Bleiben ist nirgends. (149-52) Using the word "wie," this passage establishes a parallel between a lover sepa rating from the beloved and an arrow leaving the bow. The simile joins the

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(the two lovers and the bow-arrow pair), but this notion of conflicts with the idea of separation developed within each set of joining terms (lovers separating, arrow leaving the bow). In addition, the implicit command to detach oneself is phrased tenuously, with an interrogative and a negative ("Ist es nicht Zeit..."), thus increasing the ambivalent position of this passage between separating and joining. The complex structure of the passage so that the balances the two opposing types of movement, "Absprung" of the arrow as it leaves the bow is counterbalanced the cohesive effect of the link by "wie." Indeed, this sense of cohesion is necessary in order for the ing word to be significant. The arrow is more than itself ("mehr... als er separation selbst") only as a result of having been paired with the bow in the metaphor, and with the lovers in the simile. While the First Elegy expresses the balance of conjoining and disjoining to be meaningful, that allows love relationships and metaphors the Third describes a different sort of mediated sexual relationship. The opening Elegy lines express doubt about the subject of the poem, aswell as the object of the male poet's desire: "Eines ist, die Geliebte zu singen. Ein anderes, wehe, / jenen des Blutes" (III 1-2). Several critics have verborgenen schuldigen Flu?-Gott noted the Freudian references in this poem, and have associated the "Flu? Gott" with to the unconscious.17 There is certainly a homoerotic dimension the relationship between the god and the young man, whose desire for his female lover ismediated Indeed, the young by the presence of the divinity.18 threatens to disappear entirely, leaving the young man to confront this girl ("oft auch als w?re sie nicht" [5]). The subjunctive ("w?re") deity directly the girl's disappearance without making it a reality.19 The mediating suggests in this Elegy is also significant: she attempts to role of the young man's mother him from the knowledge shield of his own hidden desires: "Mutter, du ihn klein, du warsts, die ihn anfing; / dirwar er neu, du beugtest ?ber machtest die neuen / Augen die freundliche Welt und wehrtest der fremden" (III26-28). Thus, the male god stands between the youth and his female lover, just as the tries to place herself between her son and the god. mother The Third Elegy reverses the usual model for divine-human interaction and depicts the male poet looking for an erotic and mystical relationship inside himself and in the past, rather than outside or above himself: Wie er sich hingab?.
Liebte sein Inneres, sein Herz

two sets of terms

liebte.
seines Inneren Wildnis,

diesen Urwald in ihm, auf dessen stummem Gest?rztsein

lichtgr?n stand.

Und jedes Schreckliche kannte ihn, blinzelte, war wie verst?ndigt. Ja,das Entsetzliche l?chelte... (III52-55,59-61)

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The action of yielding ("sich hingeben") to a lover or a god is usually attributed to awoman, but here it is an attribute of the male lover. Significantly, the "Inneres" that so preoccupies the youth is linked by association with the and "jedes Schreckliche" echo the statement at the angel: "das Entsetzliche" beginning of the Second Elegy, "Jeder Engel ist schrecklich." The angel-like in a realm far outside the human, is instead divinity, rather than existing associated with the youth's inner world and communicates with him in an intimate manner. In addition, the god-as-angel mediates not between human being and divinity, but between the youth and his female lover. These gender and role reversals are accompanied by a temporal one, in which the young man looks towards the past, represented by the "Urwald," instead of towards a fu ture with his lover. Such amediated the possibility of relationship undermines notion of union. At the same time, the Third Elegy escapes any uncomplicated some of the dichotomies that structure love relationships, such as the separa tion of heterosexual and homosexual desire, the opposition between male and female roles, and the distinction between past and future. Rilke's mythical narrative stands in contrast to the direct apostrophe to the beloved, which establishes an unmediated connection between the lovers. The Third Elegy, in reversing time and gender roles, describes a love relationship that ismediated through narrative. The heightened the lin emphasis of the Elegien on mediation highlights itself. Metaphors exist in a state of equilibrium guistic function of metaphor between separation and rapprochement of tenor and vehicle: if the terms are too or trite, while, becomes unnecessary if they are too similar, the metaphor cannot be interpreted. The Elegien intensify the metaphor loosely connected, this condition of the metaphorical, in both directions and push the metaphor at once, i.e., toward separation and connection. Careful choice of tenor and ve hicle is essential for creating the proper balance between joining and disjoin ing. In this context, the verb that joins the two terms is an often overlooked yet crucial element of the metaphor. The use of a verb, however, places the in the realm of human temporality, which is ordered by the catego metaphor ries of past, present, and future. Language reflects this division, with separate verb tenses used for each of these categories. Conventional narrative poetry, which orders time into past, present, and future, presupposes the separation of the speaker from the subject of the narrative; while, in lyric poetry, the characteristic figure of apostrophe20 suggests an erasure of the time and space separating speaker and addressee, even as it effects a "turning away" (sug from the original reader or listener. In Rilke's gested in the word's etymology) the subjunctive mood holds out the possibility of transcend poetry, however, a state that hovers between ing temporal categories and attaining past, and future. Through use of the subjunctive, Rilke creates a poetic present, temporality between linear time and eternity, and a poetic form between lyric and narrative poetry.

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either

In the First and Third Elegies, aswe have seen, the speaker cannot address the angel or the beloved directly, but must approach each indirectly, narrative. The narrative division of simile, and mythical through metaphor, time is suggested in Rilke's Second Elegy, whose first line, "Jeder Engel ist in the present indicative, of the first schrecklich," echoes the affirmation, stanza of the First Elegy ("Ein jeder Engel ist schrecklich" [17]). The verb tense then changes to the simple past, as the poet goes on to describe a vanished : time, inwhich human beings lived in closer contact with the transcendent Wohin sind die Tage Tobiae,
da der Strahlendsten einer stand an der einfachen Haust?r,

zur Reise einwenig verkleidet und schon nicht mehr furchtbar (II3-5). These verses appear to establish a contrast between the past, when angels were present to human and the present, inwhich they are absent. As beings, the mood changes in the following lines from indicative to subjunctive, the on the possibility of bringing the angels into the present: poet speculates Tr?te der Erzengel jetzt, der gef?hrliche, hinter den Sternen
eines Schrittes nur nieder und herw?rts: hochauf

schlagend erschlug uns das eigene Herz" (II7-9). "jetzt," which usually signals the present indicative tense, is instead the angels both do and do not exist. accompanied by the subj unctive, inwhich As in the First Elegy, the subjunctive expresses a longing for union with the transcendent, yet at the same time describes this rapprochement as potentially fatal to human beings. As in the Third Elegy, the relationship can only become past, through the creation of a productive through a return to a mythical future, or through a joining of these two extremes of linear time. mythical The conjoining of two temporal and ontological realms is explored more in the Fourth Elegy, through the contrasting extensively figures of "Engel" and Both of these figures stand in contrast to human beings, who remem "Puppe." ber the past and look towards the future, thus anticipating their own death: "Bl?hn und verdorrn ist uns zugleich bewu?t" (IV 6). The remainder of the of this human the representation Elegy involves a theatrical tendency: self-aware human being is contrasted both with the "Puppe," lacking any time is eternal. the "Engel," forwhom capacity to experience time, and with Human beings' experience of time as linear causes a doubling or splitting of their perspective. Since they can remember the past and anticipate the future, they can observe themselves through time. This capacity is figured theatri "Wer sa? nicht bang vor seines Herzens Vorhang? / Der schlug sich auf: cally: die Szenerie war Abschied" (IV19-20). Even the experience of a love relation is governed by the knowledge of impending ship separation. The extended continues with the introduction of a dancer, who is then theatrical metaphor of the human being: rejected as an ideal representation The word

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dann

erst kam

der T?nzer.

Nicht der.Genug! Und wenn er auch so leicht tut, er ist verkleidet und erwird ein B?rger und geht durch seine K?che in dieWohnung. (IV 22-25) The dancer, whose gracefulness in other approaches a unifying transcendence poems by Rilke,21 cannot transform the human being into a unified whole because the spectator is aware of his dual role: he is a dancer, but playing he leads an ordinary life as a citizen ("B?rger"). The division of roles off-stage mirrors the gap suggested in the First Elegy between human speaker and
angel.

The gap created by humans' is finally bridged by the in self-awareness troduction of the "Puppe."22 By rejecting the dancer in favor of the doll, the the divisions created by the human being's spectator attempts to overcome awareness of time. The doll has no capacity for reflection, and therefore stands outside linear time: Ich will nicht diese halbgef?llten Masken, lieberdie Puppe.Die ist voll. Ichwill den Balg aushalten und den Draht und ihr Gesicht ausAussehen. Hier. Ich bin davor. (IV 26-29) The puppet/doll is "voll," complete in itself, unlike divided human conscious ness. In the puppet/doll, which resembles them in appearance confronting but not in consciousness, human beings are able to recover themselves and situate themselves in time and space: "Hier. Ich bin davor." This is because the unifies the two meanings of "Aussehen" (looking out and appear puppet/doll The puppet/doll's unlike the human spectator's, does not search ance). gaze, to identify. Its appearance is its gaze, which for another object with which is in itself. The passage above recalls the of the angels in complete description the Second Elegy as "Spiegel: die die entstr?mte eigene Sch?nheit / wieder zur?ck in das eigene Antlitz" The angels, as self-sufficient (II15-16). sch?pfen unified beings, do not need another figure to reflect or mediate their sense of self. They remain unified throughout time and space.23 The union of angel and puppet, however, requires the disappearance of the und Puppe: dann ist endlich Schauspiel. / Dann kommt subject: "Engel indem wir da sind" (IV 56-58). zusammen, was wir immerfort / entzwein, one transcendent These two self-sufficient and one inanimate, stand beings, in contrast to the condition of being human, which, inRilke's poetry, is repre sented asmetaphor. Whereas and dolls/puppets exist in relation only to angels come into existence humans in relation to something themselves, else, whether this other is an object, a human being, or a deity.24 The similarities and differences between self and other that allow the human being to exist to come into also allow metaphors being. The beginning of the Fourth Elegy describes this state of existence: "Uns aber, wo wir eines meinen, ganz, / ist human

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f?hlbar" (IV 9-10). Language allows human be schon des andern Aufwand to mean one thing while to describe things and experiences relationally, ings aware of another, which iswhat ametaphor does. If the gap between being "Puppe" and "Engel" is created by the presence of the human being, and their to each other comes about only as a result of the human beings' connection these beings in an then the human being can only coexist with absence, in-between state, neither present nor absent. This state is created, in the Fifth combines elements of the Elegy, through the figure of the acrobat, which and "Puppe" while remaining human, and which mixes various ways "Engel" and similes with the sub time. The use of shifting metaphors of experiencing creates a space and time within which humans experience the world junctive as both transcendent and inanimate beings. In the opening lines of the Fifth Elegy, the acrobats are depicted as con trolled by the will of another, just as a puppet is controlled by the person hold same time, the acrobats are compared to human beings: ing the strings. At the
Wer aber sind sie, sag mir, ein wem, wem die Fahrenden, diese ein wenig

Fl?chtigern noch als wir selbst, die dringend von fr?h an

wringt zu Liebe

niemals zufriedenerWille?

(V 1-4)25

The word "als" in this instance has a comparative sense, both providing a link the acrobats' existence and "wir," the between and establishing a distinction human condition more generally. The formulation of the statement as a ques tion adds to the ambiguity of the comparison. The instability of the acrobats' is pursued in a series of shifting tropes (metaphors or similes), identification "als" and "wie." Rilke uses these two conjunctions the words governed by the subjunctive. They indicate a height both with and without repeatedly, of movement which ened metaphorical implies the possibility quality, towards different qualities or attributes, but without actually effecting this use of "als," movement. levels of meaning The multiple opened up by the create a space between and absence, and the subjunctive presence "wie," present and future. This is also the realm occupied by the angels:
wie glatterer auf dem aus ge?lter, Luft kommen von sie nieder ihrem ewigen

verzehrten,

Auf sprung d?nneren Teppich, diesem verlorenen Weltall. Teppich im wie ein Pflaster, als h?tte derVorstadt Aufgelegt Himmel der Erde dortwehe getan. (V 6-12) The word that allows lines suggests a comparison "als" in the opening acrobats and human beings to approach each other, but not to become equiva lent. The word "wie" in the passage above has a similar function, operating not somuch as a comparison but almost as a condition of possibility.26 A few lines

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as a simile in the phrase down, we see "wie" functioning "aufgelegt wie ein creates a rapprochement between which the carpet ("Teppich") on Pflaster," which the acrobats land and a bandage ("Pflaster"), without implying their In the next comparison, the word "als" functions as an indication equivalence. of potential movement, made clearer this time by the use of the subjunctive "h?tte": "als h?tte der Vorstadt- / Himmel der Erde dort wehe getan." The use of the subjunctive allows the shifting metaphors the acrobats' describing as a rapprochement that is location to function as sites of potentiality, i.e., suggested, but does not actually take place. In the Fifth Elegy's descriptions of the individual acrobats, the poem continues this interplay of conjoining and disjoining through the use of the subjunctive: Da: derwelke, faltige Stemmer,
der alte, der nur noch trommelt, und einer

eingegangen in seiner gewaltigen Haut, als h?tte sie fr?her

zwei M?nner enthalten,

l?ge nun schon auf dem Kirchhof, und er ?berlebte den andern, taub und manchmal einwenig wirr, in der verwitweten Haut. (V 26-32) Here, through the use of the subjunctive, Rilke constructs an imaginary past for the old acrobat, inwhich he is figured as one half of a previously united pair of men, enclosed in one skin. The death of his other half figures a unity be tween life and death, while at the same time emphasizing the separation of the dead from the living. In the floral metaphor that opens the stanza, the acrobat is described as "welk," a term that recalls the rose metaphor of the second stanza. The metaphor encloses the old acrobat in a cycle of life and death that joins past to future, but the adjective "verwitwet" suggests the more human experience of death as separation and as such as a linear progres sion rather than cyclical unity. The subjunctive allows for the coexistence of several different states of at one time, or for time to be unified in a non-linear fashion. The use of being this mood brings together the realms of the puppet, the angel, and the human inmore than one being. It also permits the acrobats to exist simultaneously place: ? Wo, o wo ist der Ort
wo sie noch lange nicht ?

ich trag ihn imHerzen ?,

konnten, noch von einander

abfieln, wie sich bespringende, nicht recht

paarige Tiere;

wo die Gewichte noch schwer sind; wo noch von ihren vergeblich wirbelnden St?ben die Teller
torkeln.... (V 73-80)

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in time and The poet imagines a space that would provide a certain continuity in the laws of nature (e.g., gravity) but posits its existence outside of his imagi nation as a question. The desire for stability is emphasized by anaphora (repe tition of "noch"), which suggests a continuity between present and past, and a stasis that is opposed to the constant motion of the acrobats. This is the space where the laws of classical physics apply, but also a space characterized by the with another human inability to connect either sexually or psychologically being. The stanza thus illustrates a dilemma inherent in the comparison be tween acrobats and human beings. The acrobats differ minutely from other ? human beings: they are "diese ein wenig Fl?chtigern noch als wir selbst"? but their very instability allows them to achieve what ordinary human beings are can exist in two places or two incapable of achieving: they temporalities at once. The acrobats, like the angels, are linked to the subjunctive mood, in that to enter into the transcendent they appear to overcome temporality, cycle of life, and to join past, present, and future. to a space beyond linear temporality occurs This transcendent movement a utopia/dystopia: in the description of Und pl?tzlich in diesem m?hsamen Nirgends, pl?tzlich die uns?gliche Stelle,wo sich das reine Zuwenig
unbegreiflich verwandelt ?, umspringt

in jenes leereZuviel. Wo die vierteilige Rechnung zahlenlos aufgeht. (V 81-86) These lines describe a reversal, that of pure insufficiency ("reine [s] Zuwenig") into empty excess ("leere[s] Zuviel"). The movement described is that of a attains a spatial dimension in the word transformative circularity, which is a description of how Rilke's tropes function: This movement "umspringt." as a series of transformations that strive for transcendence, the overcoming of same time, transcendence is never temporal and spatial limitations. At the is never established between the two terms. The reached, and an equivalence "reine [s] Zuwenig" recalls the description of the "Puppe" in the Fourth Elegy, is self-sufficient but less than human, while the "leere [s]Zuviel" points which to the angel, which exceeds human capacity but is empty of human sig the two is the "uns?gliche Stelle" of nificance.27 The balance point between human beings,28 who are brought into existence by the tension between the transcendent and the inanimate, but who must also efface themselves if the other two are to attain full existence. The highly ambiguous last lines of the stanza point to the lack of equivalence between the two terms of "Engel" and could be a bill whose total contains a "Puppe." The "vielstellige Rechnung" number of decimal places, or a total that exists in several different places large at once ("Stelle" has a spatial connotation). It could therefore correspond to of the acrobats, or to the different tropes the sum of the different movements used to describe them. The words "zahlenlos aufgeht" introduce a newdimen

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a form of movement upwards and beyond, "Aufgeht" suggests or dissolution. "Zahlenlos but it also implies evaporation transcendence, could mean that the bill adds up to zero, or that the result is infinite. aufgeht" to transcend time and This metaphor suggests that the goal of the poem is is associated with the unquantif iable, in a turning towards death, which space and infinity, "Puppe" and "Engel." At the same time, the both nothingness can only be achieved at the point of that this transcendence passage implies balance. This point is the "uns?gliche Stelle," which suggests the momentary absence of humanly produced metaphorical paradoxi language, and which evokes the human desire that calls such language into existence. cally describes in the subjunctive, iswritten The poem's final stanza, which It brings into being both the desire for and the impossibility of transcendence. to the one described above as the an alternate space, in juxtaposition is that these two places exist alongside "m?hsame Nirgends." The suggestion each other and alongside the world of the acrobats but, again, the reality of the imagined space is called into question. sion of motion. Engel!: Esw?re ein Platz, den wir nicht wissen, und dorten, auf uns?glichem Teppich, zeigten die Liebenden, die's hier bis zum K?nnen nie bringen, ihrek?hnen hohen Figuren des Herzschwungs, ihreT?rme aus Lust, ihre
Leitern, vor den Zuschauern wo l?ngst, lehnenden Boden nie war, bebend, rings, nur an einander und k?nntens, lautlosen

unz?hligen

Toten.

(V94-101)
The first line above invokes the angel and suggests that the space described is or conceptions of reality ("denwir nicht wissen"), beyond human knowledge to ours. That the but inaccessible a parallel universe existing alongside are dead suggests a unity of life and death that is impossible in our spectators in the poet's imagination.29 The goal of this experience and can only be created the "Figuren des seems at first to be another sort of movement, transcendence some of the emotional connection which would integrate Herzschwungs," in the earlier cycles of the acrobats. In contrast to this promise of a lacking to a renunciation of totality in the form of totalizing cycle, the last lines point a question about the "lautlosen Toten": W?rfen die dann ihre letzten, immer ersparten,
immer verborgenen, die wir nicht kennen, ewig

vor das endlich g?ltigen M?nzen des Gl?cks wahrhaft l?chelnde Paar auf gestilltem Teppich? (V102-06) From the promise of a realm beyond is saved and counted; from infinity numbers, we move (of metaphors, to one where money and acrobats) meanings,

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return to the finitude of truth and the reductively representative pair of it is l?chelnde Paar"). The poem asks whether lovers ("das endlich wahrhaft to transcend the limitations of linear time and fixed space, and the possible of the poem, provides an ambiguous answer. word "gestillt," the penultimate is applied not to the acrobats, as one might expect, this word Interestingly, that renders substitution but rather to the carpet ("Teppich"), a m?tonymie the final vision suspect. The adjective can mean either "unmoving," "quiet," or "satisfied." The first two meanings suggest an end to the acrobats' movement creates. The of tropes that their movement and to the transformative play third meaning of "gestillt" implies the satisfaction of sexual desires, which are substitution. That such an end and tropological also associated with motion to movement, and desire might never occur is suggested by the metaphor, mood of the verbs (subjunctive) and by the formulation of the final phrases as a question. The final joining of "Engel" and "Puppe," of two distinct realms of that are opposed to human experience, is suggested but not achieved. meaning to the Fifth Elegy's suggestion that the movement of tropes In opposition can be stopped and that sexual desires can be satisfied, stands the concept of or act of wooing courting a lover looks "Werbung" in the Seventh Elegy. The toward the fulfillment of desire, a fulfillment which has not yet taken place. The Seventh Elegy begins with a renunciation of "Werbung," only to reinstate it as a possibility through the use of the subjunctive: Werbung nicht mehr, nichtWerbung, entwachsende Stimme, sei deines Schreies Natur; zwar schrieest du rein wie der Vogel, wenn ihn die Jahreszeit aufhebt, die steigende, beinah
vergessend,

da? er ein k?mmerndes Tier und nicht nur ein einzelnes Herz
sei,

das sie insHeitere wirft, in die innigen Himmel. Wie w?rbest duwohl, nicht minder- (VII1-6) The

er, so

to renounce the Seventh Elegy begins with an imperative, a command desire for connection with angels or a lover. The second line, however, reverses this command with the suggestion that such a connection might be possible, a comparison with is the call of the bird ("wie der Vogel"), which through du wohl"). The comparative four lines later ("Wie er, so / w?rbest repeated "wie" links the human's cry to the mating call of the bird, while the subjunc the two creatures. The link between tive verbs both connect and dissociate is suggested by the the command to renounce and the desire for connection of the noun "Schreies" to the subjunctive verb "schrieest," just as similarity the noun "Werbung" in the first line is echoed in the verb "w?rbest" (line 6). of These linguistic variations and substitutions suggest that the renunciation a connection with the divine is always informed by an awareness of the imagi native force and potential existence of this connection. Even as he turns away

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from the angel and towards earthly existence, suggested by the phrase an awareness of the "Hiersein ist herrlich" (VII 39), the speaker maintains is summed up in the last lines of the transcendent realm.30 This attitude Seventh Elegy, inwhich the speaker simultaneously addresses and repudiates the angel: Glaub nicht, da? ich werbe. undw?rb ich dich auch! Du kommst nicht. Denn mein Engel, Aufruf ist immer voll Hinweg; wider so starke Str?mung kannst du nicht schreiten.Wie ein gestreckter Arm istmein Rufen. Und seine zum Greifen oben offene Hand bleibt vor dir offen, wie Abwehr undWarnung Unfa?licher, weitauf. (VII86-93) These lines begin, like the opening of the Seventh Elegy, with a negatively in the following sentence by the is transformed phrased imperative, which The connection between and angel is first denied, but subjunctive. speaker is affirmed with then its potential existence the subjunctive "w?rb." This is not followed, as one would another subjunctive expect, by subjunctive

like "du k?mest nicht") but rather by the present indicative, "Du (something kommst nicht." This rather startling transition from subj unctive to indicative makes the desire for a connection between speaker and angel more of a reality, at the same time as the connection is denied existence by the negative "nicht." arm and the hand, The ambiguity persists in the image of the outstretched is both "offen," suggesting which the possibility of a connection, and de scribed as "Abwehr" and "Warnung," terms suggesting conflict and deliberate The last line encapsulates rather than loving connection. this a continuation of the apostrophe, is ad who ambiguity, through "Engel," dressed in the last line as "Unfasslicher." That the angel cannot be seized, of "unfasslich") would tend to suggest (allmeanings grasped, or understood the fruitlessness of addressing him directly, but the speaker does not, in the end, renounce the apostrophic mode,31 through which he attempts to estab lish a link with the angel, while at the same time distancing himself from this being. The extended and ambiguous apostrophe of the Seventh Elegy could be seen as an ironic commentary on the whole notion of apostrophe; yet the itself enables the Elegy tomaintain the possibility of direct communica irony tion with the divine.32 A less conflicted relationship with the angel appears possible in the Ninth separation and Tenth Elegies, which link the human speaker with the divine through and narrative. The imperatives in the Ninth Elegy, "Preise dem Engel objects die Welt" (IX 53) and "Sag ihm die Dinge" (IX 58), suggest that the way to a connection to the angel is through objects, which are given meta establish "Sind wir vielleicht hier, um zu sagen: Haus, / Br?cke, phorical significance: ? ..." (IX /h?chstens: Brunnen, Tor, Krug, Obstbaum, Fenster, S?ule,Turm

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in the second line quoted above have 32-34). The everyday objects mentioned been used throughout human history, and have attained metaphorical signifi cance in Rilke's poetry, aswell as inworks by earlier poets. With the exception or architectural of the "Obstbaum" these objects are all man-made features, which are thus linked with the more refined "S?ule" and "Turm," both evoca tive of human beings' attempts to connect with the divine. The "S?ule" recalls the classical Greek and Roman temples, while the "Turm," reaching upwards, is associated with hubris through a connection with the Tower of Babel. The "Obstbaum" may also evoke the original link between human and divinity, as as it suggests the Tree of well as the loss of this connection, Knowledge, which led to the expulsion from Eden. These architectural and natural features evoke a sense of history that connects objects to both the human and the divine realms through narrative. to the mod All these objects or architectural features stand in opposition ern "Leidstadt" of the Tenth in which both the past and the future Elegy, (death) are denied. The erasure of history is symbolized by the beer, "Todlos, / s?? scheint" (X 35-36). In denying jenes bitteren Biers, das den Trinkenden the bitterness and reality of death, the inhabitants of the "Leidstadt" are their connection with history, aswell aswith other human beings. As effacing for this dulling of historical awareness, the occupants of the compensation "Leidstadt" direct their energies toward the accumulation of money, which is a sexual des Gelds" [X 31]). The loss of ("derGeschlechtsteil given significance a since the objects that history is related to loss of metaphorical significance, in the Ninth Elegy cannot be understood in all their complexity amid appear the distractions of the "Leidstadt." in the Tenth Elegy through and narrative are restored, however, History the encounter of the dead "J?ngling" with the "Klage." This encounter estab lishes the balance between connection and separation that allows metaphor to emerge. The "Klage" is an allegory of the "Klagelied," the German word for while the newly dead "J?ngling" is the subject of this genre of poetry. "Elegy," The Tenth Elegy unites the poem with its subject to evoke the history of the to separate them as away of suggesting the genre's future. While genre, only they are together, the "Klage" shows the "J?ngling" a condensed history of the ancient poetic form by leading him through the "Landschaft der Klagen." She begins her narrative in the past: "Wirwaren, / sagt sie, ein Gro?es Geschlecht, the land einmal, wir Klagen" (X 56-57). This past greatness contrasts with of the present, where she "zeigt ihm die S?ulen der Tempel oder die scape Tr?mmer das Land / einstens weise / jener Burgen, von wo Klage-F?rsten beherrscht" The "S?ulen," reappearing in the Tenth Elegy after (X 63-65). their mention in the Ninth, encompass both the glorious past and the decay of the present. Paradoxically, it iswhen "Klage" and "J?ngling" separate that the future of the Elegy is suggested. The youth first begins to climb the mountain in a suggested return to the past, when elegy was a dominant poetic form, and

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that the separation between past and present, between and dead, is intensified: "Einsam steigt er dahin, in die Berge des living Ur-Leids. / Und nicht einmal sein Schritt klingt aus dem tonlosen Los" between (X 105-06). The lack of communication living and dead in the pres ent is emphasized the phrase "tonlosen Los," which by suggests that the fate is neither spoken of nor heard. The next lines, however, youth's imply the of a connection between and dead, as well as between past possibility living and future, through metaphor, simile, and narrative: Aber erweckten sie uns, die unendlich Toten, ein Gleichnis, siehe, sie zeigten vielleicht auf die K?tzchen der leeren Hasel, die h?ngenden, oder meinten den Regen, der f?llt auf dunkles Erdreich im Fr?hjahr.

it is at this moment

(X107-10)
The subjunctive a suggests a potential connection between living and dead, connection which comes about through the "Gleichnis," suggesting a similar two terms. The word is also used for ity or comparison between "parable," which combines comparison with narrative. In English, "parable" also derives from the word "parabola," a curve that rises to a focal point before falling. The "Gleichnisse" used in this Elegy suggest the rise and fall of a narra particular tive structure. The youth's path up the mountain amove is a rising motion, ment away from human and from poetry, but the "Gleichnisse" com beings thus plete the trajectory by bringing him back down in a falling motion, him more accessible to human beings. The images of the making hanging catkins and the falling rain complete the upward movement of the youth away from the "Klage," and create another path that brings him back towards humanity: Und wir, die an steigendesGl?ck denken, empf?nden die R?hrung, die uns beinah best?rzt, wenn ein Gl?ckliches f?llt. (X111-14) The final image creates the potential for a union of rising and falling, of the entire narrative of human existence, of life and death in a parabolic motion.33 This movement is suggested, but never fully realized. The subjunctive verb of human beings to understand the suggests the potential "empf?nden" "Gleichnis" that links seemingly contradictory as "happiness" concepts (such and "falling"), and connects living human beings with the dead. This "Gleich nis" is nonetheless posited quite tentatively, through the use of subjunctive verbs and "vielleicht." It allows the two terms to approach each other, but never to become the desired poetic fully equivalent. This tension between of life and death and the awareness that they are separate creates the unity parabolic motion interplay between of the "Gleichnis" that, for Rilke, junction and disjunction. produces poetry in the

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a balance between connection and separation, some The Elegien maintain times moving more towards one or the other of the poles. The poems hold op them through the oscillating action of Val?ry 's posites apart while connecting As we have seen, metaphor, like the pendulum, depends pendulum of poetry. a separation between its two on establishing a connection while maintaining terms. Rilke's metaphors in the Duineser Elegien heighten the pendulum's use of the subjunctive. swing between joining and disjoining through the These poems exist somewhere between conventional lyric poetry, which es a direct connection tablishes between speaker and addressee and erases tem poral and spatial boundaries though the use of such devices as apostrophe; and conventional narrative poetry, which maintains the division of time into past, present, and future while separating the speaker and the subject of the poem. For Rilke, apostrophe contains not only the idea of direct address but also the sometimes becomes concept of "turning away." In the Elegien, apostrophe as the transcendent a apotropaic, being is both invoked and held at distance. Narrative, on the other hand, not only separates time into distinct categories, but also links the human and the transcendent through the parabolic rising and falling of the action, as well as through metaphor. Both metaphor and narrative are mediating devices, linking concepts, words, human beings, and of Rilke's metaphors objects while keeping them separate. The oscillation as an is also reflected thematically between joining and disjoining interplay between the need for connection and the desire for separation. This interplay aswell to the relates to the angel/human and the lover/beloved relationships, of the human speaker, who longs for the wholeness repre split consciousness sented by angel and puppet, while at the same time embracing the poetic self-awareness brought about by the theatrically mediated mode of being, i.e., the splitting of self into actor and spectator. It is this interplay between created through mediation, that makes poetry separation and connection, possible. Notes 1 Heidegger's essay examines the role of the angel inRilke's poetry as exemplary of
amode

2For early examples of this trend, see Blanchot who focuses on the relationship be tween the visible and the invisible, andM?rchen who discusses the unity of content
and form. poetic 3 For an example of this newer approach, see Metz's reflection on the collaboration

of being

that

transcends

boundaries

between

concepts

usually

seen

as

opposed.

of writer and reader in the construction of the text's meaning. While Luke correctly points out the complex structure and ambiguity of Rilke's figurative language, I can not agreewith his assertion that the distinction between metaphor and simile is "not important" (111) for the analysis of these poems. Engel explores the syntactical ele ments that make the Elegien resistant to interpretation (27-39).

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4 Ryan explores Rilke's linkswith all three of these movements. Komar ("The Issue of Transcendence") situates Rilke between Romanticism and Modernism. Engel de that influenced Rilke at various periods in his life. scribes the artistic movements
Pettersson characterizes the Elegien as a Modernist work because of its tendency to

explore and then discard solutions. 5 For a detailed discussion of Rilke's notion of "Figur," see Alleman. 6 For a thorough, interdisciplinary examination of metaphor, see Ortony. In this volume, Black (39), Sadock (54), and Fraser (176) all characterize metaphorical state
ment as neither true nor false in a literal sense.

7 This "interactive" theory of metaphor, proposed by Black (28), is controversial its detractors, e.g. Searle (115-19). and not without 8 Wesche and Voelkel advance a somewhat similar theory in their reading of Rilke's Eighth Elegy in the context of early 20th-century developments in physics (43-44). 9Steiner Duineser Elegien) associates the subjunctive with the grammatical (Rilkes term "der Irrealis" (13,109), to suggest that the realm of existence posited by Rilke is
unreal. He does note, however, that the subjunctive can also be used to express possi

bility (121). Engel points out that the rhetorical features of theElegien make them resis tant to interpretation (152). A. 101 will use I. Richards' more familiar terminology of "tenor" and "vehicle."More
recent terms include "focus" and "frame" (Black), "primary subject" and "secondary

subject" (Black), or "topic" and "vehicle" (Searle). 11 Miller (248) and Levin (132-33) suggest, similarly, that readers relate the "fic tional"world constructed by the metaphor to the "real" world that they know. 12 Pettersson divides Rilke's critics into those who view the project of "internaliza tion" and the celebration of the human condition (expressed in the Seventh and Ninth
Elegies) as central, and those who concentrate on the opposing statements expressed

in other Elegies (731-32). Ris interprets the Elegien as a back-and-forth movement between the angels and the inner world of humans ("Weltinnenraum" 39). Boney describes one pattern of "negative" poems that view human life as limited and mean ingless, balanced by "positive" poems celebrating both the limitations and the signifi cance of human existence (71). 13 Komar ("The Issue of Transcendence") advances this theory, but suggests that Rilke retains some of his Romantic nostalgia for transcendence (439). 14 Hollender categorizes the interpretations of the angels in the Elegien as either theologically or philosophically influenced (305), and maintains that both categories of interpretation efface important historical and cultural connotations (308-09). 15 Many critics, including Pettersson (732-33) and Komar ("The Crisis of Con
sciousness" ous fashion. 151), interpret Rilke's use of Gaspara Stampa as a model in an unambigu

16 Critical debate on the function of simile andmetaphors hinges onwhether meta phor is essentially comparative, a kind of abbreviated simile, orwhether it has a differ ent function. See Black (32), Searle (103), and Luke (111; see note 3). 17Por views the Third Elegy not as an orthodox psychoanalytic statement, but rather as a poetic reconstruction of psychoanalytic concepts (128). 18See Ostmeier on the Third Elegy in relation to the opposing views on love rela advanced by Lou Andreas-Salom? and Rilke (24-49). tionships

326 THE GERAtAN QUARTERLY

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19 notes also that the Por girl is not replaced by the god; rather, they exist simulta (132). neously 20 For deMan, apostrophe is essential to the definition of the lyric ("LyricalVoice" 61). Culler identifies it as "all that ismost radical, embarrassing, pretentious and mystificatory" in lyric poetry (137). Richardson, by contrast, argues that apostrophe is easily understood, both in poetry and in everyday speech (363-64). 21Fois-Kaschel (83) notes the relation between Rilke's Fourth Elegy and essays by Mallarm? ("Ballets") and Val?ry ("L'Ame et la danse"). 22 For a discussion of the theatrical elements of this elegy, particularly its substitu tion of the puppet for the human body, see Nagele and Komar ("The Crisis of Con
sciousness").

23 Steiner ("Zeit und Raum") identifies the "Spiegel" with

the imaginary space of the

24Simms approaches the similarity between angels and dolls from a psychoanalytic perspective, arguing that they are both representative of an early phase of the child's development (676). 25 My emphasis in bold face throughout. 26Ryan notes the similarity of Rilke's constructions with "als" to the opening lines of Eichendorff's poem, "Mondnacht": "Es war, als h?tt der Himmel / Die Erde still
gek??t."

angels.

27SeeSteiner (119-21) and Ritter (18) for interpretations of this difficult passage. 28Boney argues that the Fifth Elegy is itself a structural balance point between the two halves of the Elegien. Abbott notes that "Stelle" and "stehen" both derive from the
indo-germanic *sta, and that the term represents a "standing place" between insuffi

ciency and excess (440-41). 29 Ritter also notes that the subjunctive in this passage is linkedwith
the than performers. potentiality. She, however, interprets the subjunctive as expressing

the death of
rather

unreality

indicative and subjunctive here (734-35). 31See Ryan for a discussion of apostrophe and temporality inRilke's poem "An die Musik" (163). 32 Culler discusses Rilke's Ninth Elegy (but not the Seventh) as a "self-conscious
commentary" on apostrophe (145). He also maintains that all apostrophe has an

30Pettersson is critical of the alternation between

tive character" (146). 33Allemann notes that in "DerBall," the "Figur"emerging from the ball's movement incorporates both rising and falling (58). Komar chooses to concentrate on the falling action alone ("The Issue of Transcendence" 436).

"opta

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