The Book of Hours

The Book of Hours (German: Das Stunden-Buch) is a collection of poetry by the Bohemian-Austrian poet and novelist Rainer Maria Rilke (1875–1926).

With its dreamy, melodic expression and neo-Romantic mood, it stands, along with The Lay of the Love and Death of Christoph Cornet, as the most important of his early works.

[1] In provocative language, using a turn-of-the-century Art Nouveau aesthetic, Rilke displayed a wide range of his poetic talent.

The vastness of Russia, the fervent devotion of its peasantry to their Orthodox religion, and its culture, little touched by Western civilization - all formed a backdrop that, deepened by personal encounters with Leonid Pasternak and the renowned Leo Tolstoy, became Rilke's spiritual home.

In this dark remoteness would Rilke continue to "build" on this ancient and eternal God:[1] On the Volga, on this restfully rolling ocean... one learns all dimensions anew.

- I feel as if I had been witness to the creation; a few words for all existences, the things in the measure of God the father...According to Wolfgang Braungart the sentimental journeys brought Rilke closer to the supposed social success of primordial pre-moderns.

The work is influenced by Friedrich Nietzsche and contemporaneous philosophical ideas and shows Rilke's search for a meaningful basis for living, which he identifies as a pantheistic God.

Admittedly one does not find in his Book of Hours any fundamental skepticism about language, such as Hugo von Hofmannsthal articulated in his Chandos letter.

"[11] For critic Meinhard Prill, Rilke's is a "becoming God", one that although conceivable as the source of meaning and purpose in the world remains ultimately ineffable.