The Feminine in Rilke’s Sonnets to Orpheus

Women play a unique role in Rilke’s work. They are exemplary lovers—usually unrequited—or extraordinarily protective mothers or creative inspirations. The Sonnets to Orpheus feature a number of crucial women both historical and mythical. This essay investigates the significance of women and the feminine more generally in the Sonnets. For Rilke, women embody the nonvisible and capture the realm beyond the merely physical. This feminine principle has the capacity to bring into being that which is potential but not yet realized—just as the poet does in the creation of the poem. Rilke sees the feminine as creatively potent but at the cost of personal fulfillment. The feminine thus embodies for Rilke a philosophy of productive deprivation that presents challenges for a feminist view but also privileges the feminine. Only by participating in that feminine principle can the poet gain access to the most crucial world beyond the tangible.