Rainer Maria Rilke

René Karl Wilhelm Johann Josef Maria Rilke (4 December 1875 – 29 December 1926), shortened to Rainer Maria Rilke (), was an Austrian poet and novelist. He has been acclaimed as an idiosyncratic and expressive poet, and is widely recognized as a significant writer in the German language. His work has been seen by critics and scholars as having undertones of mysticism, exploring themes of subjective experience and disbelief. His writings include one novel, several collections of poetry and several volumes of correspondence.

Rilke travelled extensively throughout Europe, and in his later years settled in Switzerland, becoming key to the genesis and inspiration for many of his poems. While Rilke is most known for his contributions to German literature, he additionally wrote in French. Among English-language readers, his best-known works include the poetry collections ''Duino Elegies'' ('''') and ''Sonnets to Orpheus'' (''''), the semi-autobiographical novel ''The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge'' (''''), and a collection of ten letters that was published after his death under the title ''Letters to a Young Poet'' (''''). In the later 20th century, his work found new audiences through use by self-help authors and frequent quotations in television shows, books and motion pictures. Provided by Wikipedia