Letters to a Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke

1903.
    1906 Lectures on Rodin in Hamburg and Berlin.
March
His father dies. After a misunderstanding with Rodin, moves into his own lodgings in Paris. Working hard on the
New Poems
. In the summer travels in Belgium; then in Germany and Italy, ending up on Capri in December. Second, much-revised edition of
The Book of Images
appears. Also
Die Weise von Liebe und Tod des Cornets Christoph Rilke
(
The Lay of the Love and Death of the Cornet Christoph Rilke
) in book form.
    1907 Remains in Capri until the end of May. With the help of his host, Alice Faehndrich, translates Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s
Sonnets from the Portuguese
(published 1908). Returns to Paris. Frequent visits to Cézanne retrospective exhibition on which he writes a famous series of letters to Clara (published in 1952).
August
Writes nearly half the poems that will appear in the second volume of
New Poems
.
December
The first,
Neue Gedichte
, is published.
    1908 Capri, Rome, Paris.
Der Neuen Gedichte anderer Teil
(
Second Part of the New Poems
).
December
Last letter to Franz Xaver Kappus.
    1909 Working on his novel in Paris. Twice in Provence, impressions of which (especially Avignon) go much later into
The Letter from the Young Worker
. Publishes
Requiem
, two elegies, of which one is for Paula Modersohn-Becker who died in childbirth late in 1907.
    1910 The final pages of
Die Aufzeichnungen des Malte Laurids Brigge
(
The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge
) dictated in Leipzig;
May
The novel appears. This is followed by an unsettled period – travels in Italy, Bohemia, Austria, Germany, and, embarking in Marseille, Algeria and Tunisia, Sicily and Naples.
    1911 The journey continues to Egypt and up the Nile.
April
Back to Paris via Venice. Visits Aristide Maillol. Meets Marthe Hennebert, probably the ‘Marthe’ of
The Letter from the Young Worker
. Reading St Augustine, and translates first eighteen chapters of the
Confessions
; many other bits of translation besides.
July
In Prague for the last time. Then Weimar, Leipzig, Munich. From late October in Castle of Duino on the Adriatic coast,as the guest of Marie von Thurn und Taxis.
    1912 While in Duino, where he remains until May, writes first two of what will become the
Duino Elegies
, plus other fragments. Spends the summer in Venice, then autumn and winter in Spain, mainly Toledo and Ronda.
    1913
February
Back in Paris. Travels in Germany in the summer, then in September is in Munich where he meets Freud, in the company of Andreas-Salomé.
October
Returns to Paris. Reading Expressionist poets and Kleist. Finishes the third Elegy. Publishes
Das Marien-Leben
(
Life of Mary
), a sequence of thirteen poems.
    1914 Paris remains his base until July. Reading Hölderlin. Is caught in Munich by the outbreak of war and cannot return to Paris.
December
In Berlin.
    1915 Reading Hölderlin, Strindberg, Montaigne, Flaubert, the Bible, Kierkegaard.
April
His belongings in Paris are auctioned to cover the unpaid rent. Writes ‘Seven Poems’ and the fourth Elegy.
24 November
Rilke is called up. Efforts to avoid this delay things until the end of the year.
    1916 Reports for training at a barracks in Vienna but is soon transferred to the Imperial WarArchives, where Stefan Zweig is also employed.
June
Discharged and returns to Munich in July.
27 November
Death in a rail accident of Rilke’s friend Emile Verhaeren, the Belgian poet to whom
The Letter from the Young Worker
is addressed. Gathers together but does not publish a group of poems under the title ‘Gedichte an die Nacht’ (‘Poems to the Night’).
    1917 Translating Michelangelo’s sonnets. In Munich until July, then Berlin, Westphalia, Berlin (where he learns of the death of Rodin in November), and back in Munich in December where he lives in the Hotel Continental until the following May. Publishes
Die vierundzwanzig Sonette der Louize Labé
(
The Twenty-Four Sonnets of Louise Labé
) (translations).
    1918 Does not leave Munich but in May moves into