What is Rainer Maria Rilke know for? His poetry, does it have a certain element to it that identifies him as a distinguished poet like one would see a Picasso and recognize the artist?

Why not pick a poet about whom you know something? Rilke is difficult, particularly in translation. (Do you read German?) There are scores of admirable and complex poets who write or wrote in English.

I would say that avoiding the temptation to plagiarize is a very good idea.

well the prompt it a quote by Rilke so I figured learning a bit about the poet would be most helpful :T I have a basic idea to my essay ut I would like to link it to Rilke’s work somehow in theme or something like that :D

Sorry, bac; I did not understand what you wrote^^. You have very little time now to study Rilke and his works if you have a deadline coming up soon.

thanks anyway :T

What’s the Rilke quote that’s part of the prompt for the essay? And what other background are you looking for on him?

Welcome to Fluther! By the way, in the future, I’d suggest just asking one question in the title, and save other questions for the Details section.

@trusting thank you and it was “At present you must live the question.” I simply would like to tie any reocurring themes of his poetry such as perhaps something like persistence, change, transition, despair, triumph…idk anything

“At present you must live the question” is a quotation from Letters to a Young Poet, a collection of letters Rilke wrote to a young man seeking his advice about what to do with his life. In particular, it’s from letter four.

Your best bet for tying your essay to this quotation is not to talk about Rilke’s poetry in general, but to simply talk about what the quotation means. Think about what it might mean to “live the question” in your own life. It will be extremely helpful to read Rilke’s original letter; you can find it online here. (I can’t vouch for that translation in particular, but it seems OK.)

There are lots of places on the web where people talk about this quotation and its use in college admissions. Do not copy their work. But looking at the letter in detail, and then maybe quoting from another sentence in that paragraph, would be a good way to show your understanding of the idea. Good luck.