Let This Darkness Be a Bell Tower Summary
Rainer Maria Rilke

Let This Darkness Be a Bell Tower Overview

"Let this Darkness be a Bell Tower" is a sonnet by Austrian poet and novelist Rainer Maria Rilke. It was originally published as part of Rilke's Sonnets to Orpheus, and appears as poem 29 in the second part of the collection. The collection was published in 1923 in German and has been translated into English in a number of successive publications. In the poem, an unnamed speaker addresses a friend and encourages them to be present and powerful.