Neue Gedichte

1930

Brasch PT2635 I65 N48 1930

Leipzig: Insel-Verlag

Inspired by medieval art and Gothic architecture, Rainer Maria Rilke composed the Cathedral Cycle for New Poems. Influenced by Auguste Rodin’s sculptures and Paul Cézanne’s still-lifes, Rilke’s poems lyrically recreate architectural objects as verbal ones, revealing the internal vitality and value of the object and conveying to the reader ‘the experience of seeing them anew, intensely and dynamically as they are in their innermost core’ (Marielle Sutherland). In the Cathedral Cycle, Rilke recreates a Gothic cathedral with its architectural and sculptural details: the figure of an angel (with a sun dial), a portal, a rose window, and a capital.