Ulrich Baer (1)

A poet’s abecedary

The Rilke Alphabet by Ulrich Baer, translated by Andrew Hamilton (Fordham University Press/Oxford University Press, $26).

Rainer Maria Rilke (1875-1926) was a poet of great impact—in fact, in one mid-seventies poetry program, his work was so popular that no less than three of us had pets named for him, and often cited his decision to miss his daughter’s wedding because he felt a poem coming on as the sort of committment we aimed to develop.

Ulrich Baer, a professor of German at NYU who specializes in Paul Celan and Rilke, has done an amazing service in these short essays on both individual poems and aspects of Rilke’s attention. Organized alphabetically, they make up an abecedary of literary criticism, one that has no pretense of explaining the inexplicable—Rilke’s all about mystery, transcendence, “seeing through a glass darkly,” so to speak—or offering up definitive interpretations of the poems.

Instead, Baer has done what the best literary criticism has to offer: invited us to turn again to the poems with fresh eyes. The Rilke Alphabet is an excellent addition to the collection of any fan of Rilke’s work, but more importantly, it adds to the practice of criticism by producing essays almost as lyrical and fresh as the poetry they examine.

Reviewed on Lit/Rant: www.litrant.tumblr.com… (más)