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Rilke's “L'ange Du Méridien”: A Thematic Analysis

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 December 2020

Ernest M. Wolf
Ernest M. Wolf*
Affiliation:
San Diego State College, San Diego, Calif.
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Extract

L'ange du Méridien“ is the first in the group of six Chartres-poems in Rilke's Neue Gedichte. It thus occupies a place of honor among the poems which make up the Chartres-cycle. Rilke always devoted much thought and care to the technical questions of the order and arrangement of the poems within his printed works. He must have felt that ”L'Ange du Méridien“ deserved to be first for specific reasons. He must have intended to give particular emphasis to it. We may assume that he meant it to serve as a kind of musical signature or prelude for the other poems of the group, to ”set the tone“ for them. A thematic analysis of the Chartres-cycle might show that, in fact, many of the basic motifs which occur in the other poems are introduced in ”L'Ange du Méridien.“

Type
Research Article
Information
PMLA , Volume 80 , Issue 1 , March 1965 , pp. 9 - 18
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1965

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References

1 The titles of the remaining five poems in the order in which they appear in the Neue Gedichte are “Die Kathedrale,” “Das Portal,” “Die Fensterrose,” “Das Kapital,” und “Gott im Mittelalter.” The Chartres-poems have long been recognized as constituting a distinct group or cycle. In spite of this fact they have not thus far been investigated systematically as a unit. Among the many critics and commentators on Rilke's works only Hans Berendt in Ms excellent monograph Rainer Maria Rilkes neue Gedichte, Versuch einer Deutung: (Bonn: H. Bouvier Verlag, 1957) makes a first attempt to focus on the group as a separate and formal entity. But his treatment of a few pages, though very valuable, is too brief to do justice to the topic. I intend to give a comprehensive analysis of the entire cycle at a later time. The present essay is a part of this planned larger undertaking.

2 For the beginnings of such an analysis see Berendt, pp. 96–110.

3 All quotations of Rilke's poetic works, unless otherwise stated, are from Rainer Maria Rilke, Sämtliche Werke, Herausgegeben vom Rilke-Archiv in Verbindung mit Ruth Sieber-Rilke, Besorgt durch Ernst Zinn (Frankfurt: Insel-Verlag, 1955), Band i-iv. This edition will be referred to as SW, i-iv.

4 See Rainer Maria Rilke, Briefe, Erster Band, 1897 bis 1914 (Wiesbaden: Insel-Verlag, 1950), Letter 41, An Clara Rilke, p. 119. Unless otherwise stated, quotations from Rilke's correspondence are taken from this two-volume edition and referred to as Briefe 2 (i, ii).

5 Briefe 2, i, 42. An Clara Rilke, p. 121.

6 For Rilke's relationships to the arts and their influence upon the poetic style of his middle period see Wolfgang Schneditz, Rilke und die bildende Kunst (Graz, 1947).

7 Concerning Rilke's association with Rodin see Ursula Emde, Rilke und Rodin (Marburg, 1949); also Maurice Betz, Rilke à Paris (Paris, 1941). The Neue Gedichte were published in December 1907; the second volume, Der Neuen Gedichte anderer Teil, appeared toward the end of 1908. It is dedicated “A mon grand ami Auguste Rodin.” In 1903 and in 1907 Rilke published two essays on Rodin. They were brought out together in 1913 under the title Auguste Rodin by the Insel-Verlag, Leipzig. (A second edition of this volume appeared in 1917.) The Fischer-Bücherei brought out the 1907 essay as a pocketbook under the title R. M. Rilke, Rodin (Frankfurt, 1955). Two-thirds of this volume is taken up by a collection, in German translation, of all the letters Rilke wrote to Rodin.

8 René Jullian, La Sculpture romane dans l'Italie du nord (Paris: Van Oest, 1945), p. 213, writes about this statue: “et à l'angle sud-ouest, une statue adossée à une colonne et tenant un cadran solaire. C'est Je Portail Royal de Chartres qui a servi de modèle.” I owe the reference to this statue and to René Jullian's book to my colleague Dr. Robert Wallace of the Art Department of San Diego State College.

9 Auguste Rodin, Les Cathédrales de France (Paris: A. Colin, 1914). I quote from the latest edition, 1950, pp. 171–177.

10 There has been some speculation about Rilke's collaboration in Rodin's book. Both Schneditz (p. 96) and Emde (p. 70) mention this possibility, but neither of them adduces any proof for such an assumption.

11 See Emile Mâle, Notre Dame de Chartres (Paris: P. Hartmann, 1958), p. 18.

12 There is a cycle of eight poems in the Bach der Bilder which bears the title “Aus einer Sturmnacht” and another, separate poem in the same collection called “Sturm.” In addition to these poems there are throughout Rilke's works other allusions to wind and storm too numerous to list here. For a partial discussion of this cluster of motifs see the chapter on “Seasons and Climate” in W. L. Graff, Rainer Maria Rilke, Creative Anguish of a Modern Poet (Princeton: Princeton Univ. Press, 1956), pp. 160–163.

13 There is an Annunciation scene among the statues of the Royal Portal at Chartres also. But, unfortunately, the angel of this Annunciation is now headless and has been so for a long time. Thus it is impossible to determine whether or to what degree he showed the traditional smile of the bearer of the glad tidings to Mary.

14 Two of Rilke's poems contain the word “clock” in their titles: “Die alte Uhr” in Erste Gedichte and “Wenn die Uhren so nah” in Die Frühen Gedichte. Closely associated with clocks and the measuring of time is the word “hour.” This time unit is therefore another key concept in Rilke's work. We count nine poems in whose titles the word “Stunde” occurs. The title of one of his major works, Das Stunden-Buch, is also significant in this context. A count of the occurrence of this word outside of titles, in the text of other poems, would make an enlightening statistic.

15 This injunction itself goes back to a Latin sentence inscribed on many sundials: “Horas non numero nisi serenas.”

16 Berendt too regards it as a key concept in Rilke's thinking. He points to the fact that Rodin employs it several times in his pages on the Angel of Chartres. Cf. Berendt, pp. 98–105.

17 With this sentence Rodin alludes to another Latin inscription which is frequently encountered on old sundials: “Vulnerant omnes, ultima necat.”