Rainer Maria Rilke's Duino Elegies belong to the great, challenging works of modern world literature, alongside James Joyce's Ulysses and T. S. Eliot's The Waste Land, all of which were completed in the same year, 1922. However, the openness with which Rilke's poetry is now approached allows for a growing understanding of its distinctive linguistic style, its hermetic metaphor and symbolism, and the often obscure references within these elegies. An essay by Peter Szondi is included in this edition.