REViewISTA

Duinio Elegies, as translated by A. Poulin Jr. is full of imagery and depth. I would say that the driving force of the poem is in fact it's imagery. The great majority of stanzas function to further the tension of the poem by creating complex relationships with simple images. You could say that Rilke created an abstract-concrete in order to explore that great aesthetic of the 'sublime'.

"presence. Because beauty's nothing
but the start of terror we can hardly bear,
and we adore it because of the serene scorn
it could kill us with. Every angel's terrifying." (pg 5)

The relationship between the imperfection of humanity and the 'overwhelming' perfection of the sublime is one shrouded in the darkness of uncertainty.
There is the physical finite nature of human that must find a way to exist despite the juxtaposition between themselves and the infinite. What makes it so much more difficult is the attraction human has to the beauty that is so terrifying.

“in their faces and falling. Like dew on grass,

like heat from a steaming dish, everything we are rises

away from us.”

“it hurts me but that’s what we are. Does the cosmic

Space we dissolve into taste of us, then? Do angels

really absorb only what poured out of them,

or sometimes, as if by mistake, is there a trace of us, too?” (pg. 15)

And here the progression of thought is furthered still. There is a ‘volta’ so to speak, that seeks out something precious of ourselves in this sublime- or something of the sublime in ourselves. The image of that effervescent nature of ourselves rising above the imperfection of our physical bodies like steam or dew- to something that we can only strain to reach- this is perhaps where the physical tension lays in Rilke’s elegies.

Though- by the tenth elegy there is a loss of this tension that had been gained throughout the rest of the work. This is due, in part to the nature of description, another sort of abstract-concrete that does not handle images of the physical quite as well as it does in the beginning.

“But, oh, how strange the streets of the city of Pain

really are.”

“Swings of freedom! High divers and jugglers of excitement!" (pg. 69, 71)