Uncollected Poems

Between the New Poems of 1907 and 1908 and his death in 1926 Rainer Maria Rilke published only two major volumes of poetry--the Duino Elegies and the Sonnets to Orpheus both in 1923. But during this period he was writing verse continually often prolifically--in letters in guest books in presentation copies and chiefly in the pocket-books he always carried with him. This body of uncollected work exceeds five hundred pieces: finished poems of great poise and brilliance headlong statements that hurtle through their subjects haunting fragments and short bursts that arc into the unpursuable. A remarkable number of them are among Rilke''s finest poems.. Snow''s selection of more than a hundred of these little-known works distills the best of the uncollected poetry while offering a wide enough choice to convey Rilke''s variety and industry during the years he wrote them. Uncollected Poems will lead students scholars and other readers to a fresh--and more accurate--understanding of this great poet''s life and work.