How did Rainer Maria Rilke complete the Duino Elegies and Sonnets to Orpheus in February 1922?
In February 1922, while residing at the Château de Muzot in Switzerland, Rainer Maria Rilke experienced a period of intense, near-manic creative productivity that allowed him to finalize his most significant works.12
After years of being emotionally paralyzed by the effects of World War I, Rilke regained command of his creative gifts during this three-week burst of inspiration. Within this short timeframe, he revised the fifth poem of the Duino Elegies, completed the remaining five poems of the cycle, and unexpectedly composed the 55 poems that comprise the Sonnets to Orpheus. This "triumphant breakthrough" marked the culmination of his poetic development, establishing a new mythic cosmology that sought to transform the visible world into the invisible through the act of poetic praise.123