The "Spiritual Realism" of Rainer Maria Rilke and H.D.
This essay explores two poets, Rainer Maria Rilke and H.D., as they enact a form of “self-help” or “self-other-help.” Focusing on Rilke’s Sonnets to Orpheus (1922) and H.D.’s Trilogy (1944-1946), I show how their works echo each other across poems. These poets provide methods of incantation, invocat...
| Main Author: | |
|---|---|
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
School of English, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece
2023-12-01
|
| Series: | Ex-centric Narratives: Journal of Anglophone Literature, Culture and Media |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://ejournals.lib.auth.gr/ExCentric/article/view/9501 |
| _version_ | 1797202637691551744 |
|---|---|
| author | Susan McCabe |
| author_facet | Susan McCabe |
| author_sort | Susan McCabe |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | This essay explores two poets, Rainer Maria Rilke and H.D., as they enact a form of “self-help” or “self-other-help.” Focusing on Rilke’s Sonnets to Orpheus (1922) and H.D.’s Trilogy (1944-1946), I show how their works echo each other across poems. These poets provide methods of incantation, invocation, breathing, and identification to enact both “how to suffer” and to create ecstatic experience. These methods required both to face mortality close up as well as to spend long periods alone that allowed them to exercise their “antennae”; they are modernists who point away from denotative language as primary, and explore their link to the earth through what is now considered its own field, eco-poetics. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-24T08:06:36Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-e5a5e82805b249e0a78e7857e4431bc6 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2585-3538 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-24T08:06:36Z |
| publishDate | 2023-12-01 |
| publisher | School of English, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Ex-centric Narratives: Journal of Anglophone Literature, Culture and Media |
| spelling | doaj.art-e5a5e82805b249e0a78e7857e4431bc62024-04-17T11:00:43ZengSchool of English, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, GreeceEx-centric Narratives: Journal of Anglophone Literature, Culture and Media2585-35382023-12-01079310510.26262/exna.v0i7.95018345The "Spiritual Realism" of Rainer Maria Rilke and H.D.Susan McCabe0University of Southern CaliforniaThis essay explores two poets, Rainer Maria Rilke and H.D., as they enact a form of “self-help” or “self-other-help.” Focusing on Rilke’s Sonnets to Orpheus (1922) and H.D.’s Trilogy (1944-1946), I show how their works echo each other across poems. These poets provide methods of incantation, invocation, breathing, and identification to enact both “how to suffer” and to create ecstatic experience. These methods required both to face mortality close up as well as to spend long periods alone that allowed them to exercise their “antennae”; they are modernists who point away from denotative language as primary, and explore their link to the earth through what is now considered its own field, eco-poetics.https://ejournals.lib.auth.gr/ExCentric/article/view/9501self-other helpspiritualist poetrymediumisticmodernismeco-poetics |
| spellingShingle | Susan McCabe The "Spiritual Realism" of Rainer Maria Rilke and H.D. Ex-centric Narratives: Journal of Anglophone Literature, Culture and Media self-other help spiritualist poetry mediumistic modernism eco-poetics |
| title | The "Spiritual Realism" of Rainer Maria Rilke and H.D. |
| title_full | The "Spiritual Realism" of Rainer Maria Rilke and H.D. |
| title_fullStr | The "Spiritual Realism" of Rainer Maria Rilke and H.D. |
| title_full_unstemmed | The "Spiritual Realism" of Rainer Maria Rilke and H.D. |
| title_short | The "Spiritual Realism" of Rainer Maria Rilke and H.D. |
| title_sort | spiritual realism of rainer maria rilke and h d |
| topic | self-other help spiritualist poetry mediumistic modernism eco-poetics |
| url | https://ejournals.lib.auth.gr/ExCentric/article/view/9501 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT susanmccabe thespiritualrealismofrainermariarilkeandhd AT susanmccabe spiritualrealismofrainermariarilkeandhd |