New Poems

Here is the formative work of a legendary modernist who wrote poems about "not feelings but things I had felt."

The "new" aspect of Rilke's New Poems, published in two volumes in 1907 and 1908, was the poet's compression of statement and his movement away from "expression" and toward "making realities." Poems like "The Panther" and "Archaic Torso of Apollo" are among Rilke's very best, and best known. Indeed, New Poems features dozens of such vital and lasting poetic achievements—works of importance to both the course and character of modern poetry. This selection from both books presents a torrent of brilliant work intoxicated with the materiality of the world.

Edward Snow has now improved upon the translations for which he received the Harold Morton Landon Translation Award—and with which he began his twenty-year project of translating Rilke.