Rainer Maria Rilke – Four Self-Conscious Poems

Self Portrait – The Poet – Narcissus – Archaic Torso Of Apollo

Apr 14, 2009

The German poet delved deep into the self-consciousness of man. The following four poems perfectly illustrate Rainer Maria Rilke's psychological curiosity.

Rainer Maria Rilke drew much of his inspiration from an estranged lover, Lou Andreas-Salomé, who worked closely with Sigmund Freud.

While Ms. Andreas-Salome worked with Dr. Freud, she would continue to serve as the poet's muse, long after their affair had ended; and her knowledge of Freud’s ground-breaking work would infuse much of Rilke’s work.

Which in many ways explains the differences and the similarities between art and science: Where as Freud’s obsession lay within the sub-conscious; as an artist, Rilke gravitated more toward the self-conscious.

In Self Portrait, Rilke notes an earnestness, a sincerity in the individual, who struggles to create something; and the toll such work can take, in the curving lines that form the eyebrows, on a living, breathing person who’s face expresses all; show traces of childhood fears; mouth formed as a mouth, large and accurate; to express persuasively what is right; not a statue, or a flower, or a panther; but a human animal, displaying shadows of quiet downward gazing, as if something serious and lasting were being planned.

After close examination, Rilke determines that a poet, an artist, can only produce so much by mining from within; so, when the muse is deemed absent, O hour of my muse: why do you leave me, the poet is lost; rendered incapable of creating anything, the poet has nothing if the poet can't write, I have no one to love. I have no home. There is no center to sustain my life.

Written in 1914, Narcissus would seem to have been one of the first poems he wrote after his true love, Lou Andreas-Salomé had left him to go study under Sigmund Freud. And while the poem insinuates a certain understanding of fame and living an insular life; one wonders if Rilke may have been pondering the amount of selfishness (hence the concurrent self-destructiveness) it takes for one to feel abandoned and damaged by a lover.

To step out of frame for just a second, to remark, as so many have before, what a gloriously beautiful and stunningly deep poem this is; possibly the quintessential Rainer Maria Rilke poem. The reader stands along side the poet, examining a work of art; which in turn provokes the reader, the poet, to urgency.

To view the marble torso, still suffused with brilliance from inside, like a lamp; compels the self-obsessed reader to meld into that dark center where procreation flared, and consider where you have been; where you are; and where you are going.

Rilke seems to channel a future where the concept of self-consciousness is transformed into self-actualization; proclaiming that if your life is to become a work of art:

Concluding abruptly and succinctly, with one of the greatest closing lines ever written:

The copyright of the article Rainer Maria Rilke – Four Self-Conscious Poems in Poetry is owned by Martin G. Wood. Permission to republish Rainer Maria Rilke – Four Self-Conscious Poems in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.