Monday Morning Quote – Rainer Maria Rilke on Love and Midnight Rendezvous

In certain parts of the world, today is recognized as a celebration of love. To continue with this theme, today’s Monday Morning Quote comes in the form of sappy poetry:

Understand, I’ll slip quietly away from the noisy crowd when I see the pale stars rising, blooming, over the oaks. I’ll pursue solitary pathways through the pale twilit meadows, with only this one dream: You come too. - Rainer Maria Rilke Poet and supporter of clandestine, midnight rendezvous

Born in Prague, Bohemia (today considered the Czech Republic), Rainer Maria Rilke is recognized for emphasizing physical imagery within his poems.

In his early years, his mother, still mourning the lost of her firstborn daughter, would dress Rilke up in girl’s clothing and refer to him as Sophia until he was five years old. He experienced his parents’ divorce when he was nine, and in 1891, he was discharged from military school due to lifelong health problems. Nonetheless, he would later become one of the greatest lyrically-rich poets of the German language.

In his fifty-one years, Rilke had a number of female companions, which some might assume to be the source of inspiration for his poetry. His first real relationship began with an older married woman, Lou Andreas-Salomé, who greatly influenced Rilke throughout his life. He traveled with her and her husband in 1899, and it was during these travels that he also visited Leo Tolstoy.

Later on, Rilke would wed and become a father, but following the same pattern as every other relationship, his marriage did not last, perhaps becoming strained by his desire for solitude. As he once wrote in a letter, “I implore those who love me to love my solitude.”  After Rilke’s death, this letter would later be one of ten compiled into the book Letters to a Young Poet.

To those of you out there who celebrate it, Happy Valentine’s Day!

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