Hailed as the greatest modern lyrical poet of Germany, Rainer Maria Rilke's genius lies in his passion for perfection, artistic integrity and `willingness to remain a perpetual beginner'.

The verse contained in this selection ranges from the objective, naturalistic descriptions of his earliest works to the increasingly effusive outpourings of half-religious ecstasy and anguish that characterize his later poems and culminates in the overwhelmingly personal vision of the famous `Duino Elegies' and `The Sonnets to Orpheus', in which his most intense experiences of living and being find their noblest expression.