Poems on Other Difficulties Summary

In Mood's introduction, he surveys Rilke's career and evolution as a writer, pointing out his major influences like Nietzche, Lou Andreas-Salome and Auguste Rodin, and discussing the impressive collection of writing that came out of his "great giving" in February of 1922. It was then that he finished the "Duino Elegies" and the "Sonnets to Orpheus." Critics are, Mood points out, divided over which is better, but he directs his focus to the works that came after those landmark works, and it is that collection from which he chooses his next selections. These poems all deal with the perennial themes of growth, life, death and transformation and thereby retain their relevance despite passing years and evolving culture.

In the first poem, "The Poet Speaks of Praising," Rilke contrasts questions of angst with fearful days, gray monotony, disingenuous people...