He was the idol and the idol of entire generations of German, and even more so, European readers, and his sonorous, rhythmic name became synonymous with the poetic: Rainer Maria Rilke. He was a genius artist. He handled rhyme like few poets in the history of our literature, extracting unimaginable sounds and melodies from the language. In many verses, he was able to express what seemed inexpressible: His poetry is a triumph over the unspeakable. The magic of Rilke's verses remains unbroken to this day. This volume gathers the most beautiful poems from his lyrical work, edited by Marcel Reich-Ranicki.