After completing his novel "Malte Laurids Brigge," it became difficult for Rilke, as he could hardly meet his immense demands on himself: The writing of the ten "Duino Elegies" between 1912 and 1922 fell into a biographical and historical crisis of his work. In stark contrast are the "55 Sonnets to Orpheus," which he wrote down in a month as if under dictation after finishing the "Elegies." By the time of these two cycles of poems from his later work, he had become one of the most significant poets of literary modernism. Critically edited after their first prints in 1923.