Rilke, who is "widely recognized as one of the most lyrically intense German-language poets,"[2] wrote the cycle in a period of three weeks experiencing what he described a "savage creative storm.

The Sonnets to Orpheus and the Duino Elegies are considered Rilke's masterpieces and the highest expressions of his talent.

He had begun his Duino Elegies in 1912, and completed parts of it in 1913 and 1915 before being rendered silent by a psychological crisis caused by the events of World War I and his brief conscription into the Austro-Hungarian army.

In 1921, Rilke journeyed to Switzerland, hoping to immerse himself among French culture near Geneva and to find a place to live permanently.

At the invitation of Werner Reinhart, Rilke moved into the Château de Muzot, a thirteenth-century manor that lacked gas and electricity, located near Veyras, Rhone Valley, Switzerland.

[4]: p.474  Reinhart, a Swiss merchant and amateur clarinetist, used his wealth to act as a patron to many 20th Century writers and composers.

[4]: p.478 With news of the death of his daughter's friend, Wera Knoop, Rilke was inspired to create and set to work on Sonnets to Orpheus.

"[3][6] Writing to his former lover, Lou Andreas-Salomé, on 11 February, he described this period as "...a boundless storm, a hurricane of the spirit, and whatever inside me is like thread and webbing, framework, it all cracked and bent.

"[4]: p.492 [7] Throughout the Sonnets, Wera appears in frequent references to her, both direct where he addresses her by name and indirect as allusions to a "dancer" or the mythical Eurydice.

Later, Rilke wrote to the young girl's mother stating that Wera's ghost was "commanding and impelling" him to write.

To fashion poems in entire cycles was quite common in contemporary practice, the works of Stefan George, Arthur Rimbaud and Stéphane Mallarmé being examples of this.

Wie aber, sag mir, soll ein Mann ihm folgen durch die schmale Leier?

(I,3) A solution to these problems can be found in the fifth sonnet of the first part, where Rilke exclaims: Once and forever it's Orpheus, whenever there's song (I,5).

This means that the poem always possesses a divine quality, as the poet stands in direct succession to the son of the Muses.

[17] What Wolfram Groddeck referred to in his afterword to the Reclam edition as a "dilemma of critical reading", was a result of the uncompromising text, which resists simple interpretation.

Thus, the criticism of the sonnets often fluctuates between the assumption of a sonic primacy over the semantic level and an unconditional affirmation of the cycle.

Doch selbst in der Verschweigung ging neuer Anfang, Wink und Wandlung vor.

ein Unterschlupf aus dunkelstem Verlangen mit einem Zugang, dessen Pfosten beben, - da schufst du ihnen Tempel im Gehör.

Creatures of stillness pressed out of the clear unravelled forest from lair and nest; and it came to pass, that not by cunning and not out of fear were they made so quiet,