"Des Dastehns groSSer Anfangsbuchstab"

The fifth of Rilke's Duineser Elegien begins with a question about the struggling acrobats featured there: Wer aber sind sie, sag mir, die Fahrenden, diese ein wenig Fliichtigern noch als wir selbst .. In answer, the poet focuses on the transition from falling to rising, that brief moment in which the acrobats stand there, creating des Dastehns grof3er Anfangsbuchstab. Who are they then? Beings who stand there. A quick survey of the Elegies reveals that this is no isolated metaphor. The Fourth Elegy uses standing to depict childhood's ontological surety, the hours in which children were mit Dauerndem vergntigt und standen da / im Zwischenraume zwischen Welt und Spielzeug... . The Seventh Elegy directly relates standing to being

Art · Elegy · Literature · Poetry · German Literature and Culture Studies · Historical, Literary, and Cultural Studies · Literature and Cultural Memory · Philosophy

• The Pendulum of Poetry

  Open Access•Eleanor E Ter Horst•The German Quarterly•2006

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