Rilke, Rainer Maria

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Rilke, Rainer Maria (1875–1926) German lyric poet, b. Prague. Rilke's first volume, The Book of Hours (1899–1903), was inspired by visits to Russia. During a 12-year sojourn in Paris, he developed the ‘object poem’ used in New Poems (1907–08); thereafter, he published little until 1922, when Sonnets to Orpheus and his existential masterpiece Duino Elegies both appeared.

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