Re: JDS in the Clouds--Addendum
citycabn (citycabn@gateway.net)
Thu, 04 Nov 1999 12:00:21 -0800
Which is just to say I am in a foul, foul mood and that RMR shouldn't be
viewed solely through his earlier works and possibly be misperceived as a
warm and cuddly type writer. BUT:
For several years, his early work (from 1898 through 1906) was *my* RMR.
Wonderful, heartfelt treasures are there: "The Letters to a Young Poet",
which will last as long as one more solitary youth feels the stir of poetry;
the romantic, but heartbreaking, early prose poem re war: "The Lay of the
Love and Death of Cornet Rilke"; the "Stories of God" which were written
with children in mind (after he journied to Russia with his *truest* love:
Lou Andreas-Salome, sought after by Nietzche (she rejected him), and later,
friend and colleague of Freud--Lou introduced RMR to Tolstoy, but RMR
rejected her offer to meet Freud--); "The Book of Hours" which was dedicated
to Lou; and The Book of Pictures, which contains at least a dozen poems
which will live as long as German. All of which is just to say, the early
RMR is great but don't stop, and stay, just there.
The last twenty years are the true revelation.