Theodore Ziolkowski, Rilke's Portal Sonnets.

Rilke's "Portal" SonnetsAuthor(s): Theodore ZiolkowskiSource: PMLA, Vol. 74, No. 3 (Jun., 1959), pp. 298-305Published by: Modern Language AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/460591 .Accessed: 09/03/2014 11:07

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range ofcontent in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

.

Modern Language Association is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to PMLA.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 194.177.218.24 on Sun, 9 Mar 2014 11:07:48 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

RILKE'S "PORTAL" SONNETS

By Theodore Ziolkowski

THE THREE SONNETS that Rilke pub?

lished in his Neue Gedichte (1907-08) under the collective title "Das Portal" were written between 8 and 11 July 1906, during the period of intense productivity following the break with Rodin (May 1906). Ever since it has become fashionable to ignore Rilke's Neue Gedichte as "intellektuell aufgezwungen,"1 these poems have been overlooked by many scholars and critics; even the most recent and staunchest champion of the Neue Gedichte, Hans Berendt,2 has failed to explore various aspects of these sonnets that would serve to relate them more closely to Rilke's earlier and later work. The reasons for this neg? lect are obvious. The three sonnets represent a perfect example of the "Dinggedicht" of this period, being apparently nothing more than the poetic depiction of a particular portal of a cer? tain cathedral in France; such an objective at? tempt to grasp and express the essence of a for? eign "thing" is, by common consent, necessarily alien to the singularly subjective flow of the poet's own thoughts and emotions.3 Further? more, this new conception of poetry arose under the influence of the sculptor Rodin, whom Rilke was striving to emulate in his efforts always to capture the essential nature of the model and the "modele" to the exclusion of subjective impres? sions. Since Rilke learned much about cathe- drals under the tutelage of Rodin, his poems on architectural subjects are even more highly sus- pect of being "intellektuell aufgezwungen" than, say, poems dealing with gazelles or carrousels. Yet in many of the Neue Gedichte, as has been demonstrated, there is more to be found than sheer poetic virtuosity, and undeniable thematic connections with the entire body of Rilke's poetic creation have been uncovered.4 A closer examina? tion of the "Portal" sonnets reveals that even here certain characteristic themes may be found.

The sonnets belong topically to the group of eight cathedral poems that appear early in the Neue Gedichte, beginning with "PAnge du meridien" and ending with "Gott im Mittel- alter." All eight were written in Paris during the months of June and July 1906, and only the first, in a subtitle, refers explicitly to the cathe? dral at Chartres. Hans Berendt assumes that the entire group was inspired by Chartres alone,6 but this is an unnecessary (and, as we shall see, mis- leading) restriction, for Rilke was an ardent ad? mirer of many cathedrals and never limited his

enthusiasm to one exclusively. His first letter from Paris (written to Clara Rilke on 31 August 1902) describes a visit to Notre Dame and mentions with special warmth and interest the statues of Adam and Eve, which he was to por? tray six years later in Der neuen Gedichte anderer Teil. In a letter written in 1904 he speaks of the church of St. Julien le Pauvre in Paris: "und ihre Saulen, die arm sind, haben die herrlichsten Kapitale der Welt."6 One might readily assume that this twelfth-century Gothic church, rather than Chartres, inspired the poem "Das Kapital." Moreover, Rilke did not confine himself to ac? tual on-the-spot contemplation of the various cathedrals. As early as 26 September 1902, he reports to Clara: "... [ich] habe viele Bucher gelesen und viele Reproduktionen von Kathe- dralen aus dem xn. und xm. Jahrhundert gesehen." And on the very next day: "Das Museum des Trocadero ist sehr interessant; es enthalt leidlich gute Gipsabgiisse und Abfor- mungen von alten Portalen aus der Provinz, aus Chartres, aus Rouen und anderen Stadten; Bruchstucke, Details, Saulen. ..." The point to be stressed is merely this: composing his poems in retrospect after a certain interval of time (as he habitually did), Rilke did not necessarily have Chartres specifically in mind for any of the poems except "l'Ange du meridien." That cathedral was unquestionably one of his major sources of inspiration, but in the "Portal" group, as well as "Die Kathedrale" or "Das Kapital," he was

1 Hans-Wilhelm Hagen, Rilkes Umarbeitungen: Ein Beitrag zur Psychologie seines dichterischen Schafens (Leipzig, 1931), p. 87. 2 Rainer Maria Rilkes Neue Gedichte: Versuch einer Deutung (Bonn, 1957). 3 Hans-Rudolf Muller, Rainer Maria Rilke als Mystiker (Berlin, 1935), pp. 149-151, argues convincingly that the very act of selection, as well as the device of ascribing human emotions to things, is anything but objective. Yet the fact remains that Rilke, in these poems, was frequently attempt? ing to portray the essence of the thing depicted, to the ex? clusion of his own feelings. 4 This is the general tendency of the books by Muller and Berendt, and the same conviction is to be found in various separate articles: cf., e.g., Hermann J. Weigand, "Das Wunder im Werk Rainer Maria Rilkes," Monatshefte, xxxi (1939), 1-21. 6 See pp. 86 and 96-108. Berendt's enthusiasm leads him astray at one point (p. 104) when, quoting a letter from Rilke to Clara Rilke (2 Dec. 1905) that clearly refers to Notre Dame in Paris, he omits the place name and inserts the quo? tation in a context that by implication points to Chartres. 6 To Emmy von Egidy on 6 Feb. 1904.

298

This content downloaded from 194.177.218.24 on Sun, 9 Mar 2014 11:07:48 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Theodore Ziolkowski 299

depicting a typical ideal rather than a specific prototype.

Auguste Rodin was the vociferous champion of the French cathedral. His book, Les cathidrales de France, a collection of loosely organized notes that were jotted down over a period of thirty years, contains a curious potpourri of penetrating technical remarks on architecture and sculpture, dithyrambic paeans, and an old man's fussy scolding of the younger generation. The book was printed seven years after the Neue Gedichte appeared, and it was only after his reconciliation with "le Maitre" that Rilke was requested to look over the notes and manuscript of the work. (Rodin subsequently presented Rilke with these notes, which were found in the poet's NachlaB.1) Yet the book is of interest in so far as it repre? sents comments of the sort that Rilke surely heard expressed by Rodin on their visits, for instance, to Notre Dame in Paris (which Rodin does not discuss in his book) and Chartres. Rodin must have been especially elegiac and articulate about Chartres, "l'Acropole de la France,"8 when he revisited the cathedral with Rilke on 25 January 1906, roughly half a year before the poems of "Das Portal" were written. In his book he calls attention to the portal: "Comme les gestes de ces figures sont vrais, simples, et grands! . . . Les gestes humains, libres, sont toujours beaux. Mais ceux de ces statues, repetes durant tant de siecles, ont pris je ne sais quel caractere sacre de majeste lente" (p. 113). Or: "A Chartres, voyez quelle delicieuse entree nous preparent les histoires merveilleuses racon- tees par les sculptures et les ornements du por- tail: ce sont des scenes qui se deroulent et s'enroulent comme les caprices d'un reve tres net et tres delicat" (p. 116). There can be little doubt that the trained eye of the sculptor taught the poet to observe many aspects of the cathedral that might otherwise have escaped his notice. In the letter to Clara in which he reports on the trip to Chartres (26 January 1906) Rilke writes: "Und der Meister ist der einzige (scheint es), zu dem das alles noch kommt und spricht. (Sprache es, denkt man, zu den anderen auch nur ein wenig, wie konnten, wie diirften sie's uberhoren?) Er war wie in Notre-Dame ruhig, eingeordnet, unendlich erkannt und empfangen. Leise von seiner Kunst sprechend und bestatigt in ihr, von den grofien Grundsatzen, die sich ihm zeigen, wo er hinsieht." It would seem, then, that Rilke's mind, which even before his acquaintance with Rodin had become receptive to the effect of the great cathedrals, was stimulated immensely by the sculptor's superior insight into their structure

and nature in principle and detail. When Rilke, in retrospect, set down his impressions in poetic form, he was expressing his own ideas, but these were no doubt colored by the memory of Rodin's eloquent interpretations of the cathedrals they had visited together.

The three sonnets of the "Portal" group be? come progressively more complex. The first is a relatively simple depiction of the large stone figures that line the portal of the (unspecified) cathedral. The word Heilige appears in none of the three poems, but references in the first one to Nimbus and Bischofshut make it clear that the poet's eye is considering these prominent saints:

Da blieben sie, als ware jene Flut zuruckgetreten, deren grofies Branden an diesen Steinen wusch, bis sie entstanden; sie nahm im Fallen manches Attribut

aus ihren Handen, welche viel zu gut und gebend sind, um etwas festzuhalten. Sie blieben, von den Formen in Basalten durch einen Nimbus, einen Bischofshut,

bisweilen durch ein Lacheln unterschieden, fiir das ein Antlitz seiner Stunden Frieden bewahrt hat als ein stilles Zifferblatt;

jetzt fortgeriickt ins Leere ihres Tores, waren sie einst die Muschel eines Ohres und fingen jedes Stohnen dieser Stadt.

(i, 499)9

The objective portrayal is complicated only by the geological metaphor that introduces the poem. The statues are likened to stone formations carved out by the constant washings of a tide that has now receded, taking with it something formerly held in their hands (possibly a reference, on the realistic level, to the time-worn stone of the statues). The flood, in turn, can be inter- preted to mean the wave of medieval religious enthusiasm that produced the statues and cathedrals; when this fervor waned, it took away many of the mystical attributes ascribed to the statues, for only faith endows them with their miraculous powers. Through a flashback as it were, this opening metaphor brings a touch of rhotion into the poem: the remaining verses em? phasize the purely static nature of the statues

7 Hartmann Goertz, Frankreich und das Erlebnis der Form im Werke Rainer Maria Rilkes (Stuttgart, 1932), pp. 25 and 31.

8 Les cathUrales de France (avec cent planches ine*dits hors texte), Introd. Charles Morice (Paris, 1914), p. 111. All sub- sequent quotations from Rodin refer to this work. 9 All quotations of Rilke's poetry, as well as the dates of the various poems, are cited according to Vols. i and n of his Sdmtliche Werke, ed. Ernst Zinn (Insel-Verlag, 1955/1956).

This content downloaded from 194.177.218.24 on Sun, 9 Mar 2014 11:07:48 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

300 Rilke's "Portal" Sonnets

and express the contrast between time past and present. Formerly the saints were the focal point of all activity in times when life was still centered around the cathedral. The church as a place of confession is called metaphorically the ear (scil. of God), and the portal statues, by a logical ex- tension, are visualized as the concha of the ear. Now, however, the statues exist in a state of per? petual peace and rest: a state characterized by the smile that is also such a prominent feature of "l'Ange du meridien." The portal is empty and void of men, and the saints have lost their func? tion : they symbolize pure existence.

The second sonnet turns away from the promi? nent figures of the saints and, introducing the new image of a theater, dwells upon the second? ary figures of the columns, consoles, and tym- panum:

Sehr viel Weite ist gemeint damit: so wie mit den Kulissen einer Szene die Welt gemeint ist; und so wie durch jene der Held im Mantel seiner Handlung tritt:?

so tritt das Dunkel dieses Tores handelnd auf seiner Tiefe tragisches Theater, so grenzenlos und wallend wie Gott-Vater und so wie Er sich wunderlich verwandelnd

in einen Sohn, der aufgeteilt ist hier auf viele kleine beinah stumme Rollen, genommen aus des Elends Zubehor. Denn nur noch so entsteht (das wissen wir) aus Blinden, Fortgeworfenen und Tollen der Heiland wie ein einziger Akteur.

(i, 499-500)

This sonnet is diametrically opposed to the first: there the image was static, here the prevailing mood is dynamic. This feeling is intensified by participles like handelnd, wallend, verwandelnd, and by verbs like tritt and entsteht. In the first poem Rilke kept his eyes focused upon the saints; here he steps back and regards the entire portal from the figure of Christ in the tympanum to all His hypostases in the multifarious reliefs. The portal is considered a tragic theater by virtue of the legendary scenes depicted in its panels and the "Blinden, Fortgeworfenen und Tollen," the models for the anguished figures of the consoles and columns. The word Fortgeworfenen is highly characteristic here, for it is the expression used repeatedly in Malte Laurids Brigge (1910), which Rilke defines there as "Abfalle, Schalen von Menschen, die das Schicksal ausgespieen hat."10 They are clearly tragic existences. Yet in reminiscence of the third part of Slunden- buch (written in 1903), the poet explains that only from such as these can the Saviour be

born. This is a concise recapitulation of "Das Buch von der Armut und vom Tode," which has as its main theme the notion that only the truly poor of humanity will be able to effect the birth of the true Saviour. It is in this way, then, that the portal symbolizes "sehr viel Weite" and af- fords a suitable background for the protagonist of the poem, "das Dunkel dieses Tores," who like God Himself is boundless and heaving and ca? pable of transforming himself. The second part of the sonnet is so heavily laden with symbolic overtones that it is tempting, in rereading the poem, to ascribe some lofty significance to this "Dunkel," such as death. However, it seems more likely that Rilke is speaking here simply of shadow as an element of architecture, the shadow that Rodin praised so highly in his Cathedrales:

... les Gothiques furent de grands peintres parce qu'ils etaient de grands architectes.?II va de soi que nous prenons ici le mot peintre dans un sens vaste et general. Les couleurs dans lesquelles les peintres dont nous parlons trempent leur pinceaux sont la lumiere et l'ombre meme du jour et des deux crepuscules. Les plans, obtenus par les grandes oppositions que devai- ent rechercher les constructeurs des Cathedrales, n'ont pas seulement un interet d'equilibre et de solidite; ils determinent en outre ces ombres profondes et ces belles lumieres qui font a l'edifice un si magnifique vetement. (p. 2)

Rodin writes on and on about the merits of shadow in architecture and sculpture. How well Rilke learned this lesson is apparent as early as 1903 in the first part of his book on Rodin:

Und in der Tat plant Rodin ein grofies Reliefwerk, bei dem alle die Wirkungen des Lichtes, die er mit den kleinen Gruppen erreichte, zusammengefaCt werden sollen. Er denkt daran, eine hohe Saule zu schaffen, um die ein breites Reliefband sich aufwarts windet. Neben diesen Windungen wird eine gedeckte Treppe hergehen, die nach aufkn durch Arkaden abgeschlos- sen ist. In diesem Gange werden die Gestalten an den Wanden, wie in ihrer eigenen Atmosphare, leben; eine Plastik wird entstehen, die das Geheimnis des Hell- dunkels kennt, eine Skulptur der Dammerung, ver- wandt jenen Bildwerken, die in den Vorhallen alter Kathedralen stehen.11

Rilke perceived that light and shadow are as much a part of the portal and the cathedral as the sculptured figures or the flying buttresses themselves. In this poem he has chosen to drama- tize the role of shadow by placing it metaphor-

10 Gesammelte Werke (Leipzig, 1930), v, 50. 11 Auguste Rodin (mit 96 Vollbildem) (Leipzig, 1928), pp. 70-71.

This content downloaded from 194.177.218.24 on Sun, 9 Mar 2014 11:07:48 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Theodore Ziolkowski 301

ically on a stage comprising the various minor figures of the portal. It remains only to be pointed out that the contrast between static and dynamic that we find in the first two poems is intensified by the contrast between light and darkness; but this second contrast is only an im? plicit one since the sole evidence of light in the first sonnet is the vivid impression produced by the penetrating smiles of the saints.

We come now to the third and most problem? atic of the poems:

So ragen sie, die Herzen angehalten (sie stehn auf Ewigkeit und gingen nie); nur selten tritt aus dem Gefall der Falten eine Gebarde, aufrecht, steil wie sie,

und bleibt nach einem halben Schritte stehn wo die Jahrhunderte sie uberholen. Sie sind im Gleichgewicht auf den Konsolen, in denen eine Welt, die sie nicht sehn,

die Welt der Wirrnis, die sie nicht zertreten, Figur und Tier, wie um sie zu gefahrden, sich krummt und schiittelt und sie dennoch halt:

weil die Gestalten dort wie Akrobaten sich nur so zuckend und so wild gebarden, damit der Stab auf ihrer Stirn nicht fallt.

(i, 500)

In this sonnet Rilke juxtaposes the subjects of the first two poems and brings about in the last three lines a synthesis of the apparent opposites. It is immediately apparent that the natural divi? sions of the poem correspond in no way to its rigid strophe pattern; rather, the poem falls into natural groups of respectively six, five, and three verses. Verses 1-6 present the statues of the saints. The reader's eye follows this first sentence smoothly, and no syntactical complexity mars the impression of absolute calm. Noteworthy es? pecially is the fourth verse, in which the natural rhythm of the line contrasts sharply with the meter of the verse, drawing the reader's atten? tion forcibly to the archaic rigidity of the frozen attitudes of the various saints. Otherwise the first sentence is nothing but a statement: the saints, their hearts in a state of suspended animation, stand immovably fixed in the attitudes that they have maintained eternally; time overtakes and passes them by.

After this initial statement Rilke turns to the figures of the console. Grammatically the saints remain the subject of the second sentence, but the true object of the poet's eye is the mass of console figures. These five verses (up to the colon) are so complex syntactically that the reader is compelled to analyze the entire period in order to discern its precise structure; the overwhelming

impression is one of awkward and anguished contortions, which reflect syntactically the theme of the period. The figures of the console, unlike the saints, live in a state of perpetual agitation. The contrast is brought out especially effectively by Rilke's use, in verse 4, of the noun Gebarde, which for him always designates a set attitude such as the act of kneeling, and, in verse 13, the verbal form gebarden, which here implies wild gesticulation. Their world is one that the stony saints, whose eyes are focused upon eternity, never see, and one that the saints never stamped out of existence. They go through their weird contortions, yet despite this they do not upset the saints who stand, perfectly poised, above them. The last three verses, finally, bring the surprising synthesis. The state of equilibrium is maintained precisely because the figures of the console, like acrobats attempting to balance some object on the end of a pole upon their foreheads, must execute wild gyrations in order to preserve the balance of the object being supported. This visual image suddenly makes the whole poem come to life, and in itself it is perhaps sufficient to form the substance of a unique "Dinggedicht." Rilke is expressing poetically the verity of Rodin's theories of architecture, for, to the sculptor's mind, the essence of cathedrals is their harmony. His book begins on this note and re? turns to it constantly throughout the text:

Les Cath6drales imposent le sentiment de la eon- fiance, de l'assurance, de la paix,?comment? Par l'harmonie.

Ici, quelques considerations techniques sont neces- saires.

L'harmonie, dans les corps vivants, resulte du con- trebalancement des masses qui se deplacent: la Cathe- drale est construite a l'exemple des corps vivants. (p. 1)

Et l'eglise tout entiere est composee avec une telle science de Pharmonie que chacun des elements de la composition donne a tous les autres un retentissement formidable.?-Les contreforts, par exemple, c'est la beaute de Fopposition: contreforts trapus, filets elances; repos partout ou il est possible pour favoriser Peffet suave de la floraison du haut et de Pagitation des assemblees qui sont aux portes.

Cette agitation elle-meme garde une mesure, dictee par Pordonnance du monument et par sa destination. (p. H5)

In his visual comprehension of the portal Rilke seems greatly influenced by the sculptor. But is this visual depiction actually enough?

If one were content to accept Berendt's con- tention that the poems refer specifically to the south portal of the cathedral at Chartres, the analysis might end at this point. Berendt is ad-

This content downloaded from 194.177.218.24 on Sun, 9 Mar 2014 11:07:48 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

302 Rilke's "Portal" Sonnets

mittedly puzzled by the concluding verses of the poem, and his interpretation amounts to little more than a paraphrase. The figures of the saints, he asserts, rest in a state of "Gleichgewicht deshalb, weil die ewigen Gestalten und 'die Welt der Wirrnis' sich nur dadurch 'halten,' dafi die Welt in hoffnungslosem Krampf, im 'Sich- Krummen und Schiitteln' der sich 'wie Akro- baten zuckend und wild gebardenden' 'Figuren und Tiere' unter die Konsolen gebannt ist ..." (p. 103). Berendt goes on, two pages later, to explain that the "Stab" of Rilke'apoem refers to the "Bischofsstab" that is held by one of the statues in the south portal of the cathedral at Chartres. This approach is very appealing, for in the first sonnet Rilke expressly mentions that one of the figures wears a bishop's mitre. Accord? ing to Berendt, then: "Ein Bischof tragt den Bischofsstab, der iiber die Konsole nach unten hinausragt auf den Kopf einer verbogenen Menschenfigur unter ihm" (p. 105). The deeper meaning of the passage, he concludes, can be only this:

" . . . im Stab erscheint eine Verbin- dung der Portalgestalten zu den Menschen versucht, aber sie bleibt nur eine zarte Beriih- rung wie die eines Akrobaten mit dem Stab, den er auf seinem Kopf 'balanciert'" (p. 105). This argument would be quite convincing were it not for the fact that in the two plates cited as evi? dence12 the bishop's staff is resting not on a hu? man or animal figure, but squarely and visibly upon the peaked roof of a church that forms his console. It seems more fruitful to take another approach and to suppose that Rilke did not have any specific portal group in mind, but was simply depicting a typical archetype that has symbolic potentialities.

The saints "sind im Gleichgewicht auf den Konsolen." Gleichgewicht is a key word in Rilke's work; it occurs over a dozen times in his poems, and practically always in a position of signifi? cance. In a few poems the word appears in a con? text where it is possible to construe it with no symbolic meaning: "Das Einhorn" (i, 507), "Geburt der Venus" (i, 550), "San Marco" (i, 610), and the Fifth Elegy (i, 704). But in almost every other case it is obvious that the poet at- taches a special meaning to the expression. (1) It is used to refer to God in the Stundenbuch: "Falle nicht, Gott, aus deinem Gleichgewicht" (i, 339), and again in "Das jiingste Gericht" (i, 416). (2) It describes man in his perfect state, as in Stundenbuch: "Und ihre Menschen dienen in Kulturen / und fallen tief aus Gleichgewicht und Mafi ..." (i, 363). Or later in the "Requiem" for Paula Modersohn-Becker:

. . . Deiner Tranen Kraft und Andrang hast du verwandelt in dein reifes Anschaun und warst dabei, jeglichen Saft in dir so umzusetzen in ein starkes Dasein, das steigt und kreist, im Gleichgewicht und blindlings.

(i, 651)

(3) It is the attribute of things that exist outside the sphere of human turmoil, as is stated gen? erally in the "Requiem: Clara Westhoff gewid- met": "Die Erde ist voller Gleichgewicht" (i, 474), and more specifically in the poems "PAnge du meridien" (i, 497), "Strophen zu einer Fest- Musik" (ii, 99), or quite late in "Vergers": "Peut-etre qu'on compte trop peu / avec ce mouvant equilibre ..." (n, 528). This aspect is defined most cogently, perhaps, in a letter to Ellen Key (3 April 1903): "O wie ich daran glaube, an das Leben. Nicht das, das die Zeit ausmacht, jenes andere Leben, das Leben der kleinen Dinge, das Leben der Tiere und der grofien Ebenen. Dieses Leben, das durch die Jahrtausende dauert, scheinbar ohne Teil- nahme, und doch im Gleichgewicht seiner Krafte voll Bewegung und Wachstum und Warme." (4) This extended sense of equilibrium was brought home to Rilke most forcibly by his ac- quaintance with Rodin, the only living man to whom he applied the term.13 In the Briefe aus den Jahren 1892 bis 1904 (Leipzig, 1939) it is to be found repeatedly: "Er ist so ungeheuer im Gleich? gewicht, seine Worte gehen so sicher ..." (p. 263); "Vous etes le seul homme sur le monde, qui plein d'equilibre et de force s'erige en har- monie avec son ceuvre" (p. 266); "damals, als er das so unendlich unstoffliche und einfache Ele? ment seiner Kunst gewann, gewann er sich diese grofie Gerechtigkeit, dieses vor keinem Namen schwankende Gleichgewicht der Welt gegeniiber" (pp. 376-377); "seine tlberlegenheit iiber die Menschen, die viel zu beweglich sind, zu schwan- kend, zu sehr spielend mit den Gleichgewich- ten, in denen er, fast unbewufit, ruht" (p. 384). The term emerges, then, as a lifelong ideal of the poet: a principal attribute of God, of the world, of things; and the example of Rodin con- vinces him that this ideal of harmonic balance can be attained. The saints of our sonnet not

12 La catMdrale de Chartres: Vues exterieures, Editions "Tels" (Paris, 1938), pls. 13 and 14. 13 By way of comparison it might be mentioned that Rilke uses the word to refer to Cezanne's paintings?Briefe aus den Jahren 1906 bis 1907 (Leipzig, 1930), pp. 405 and 410?but when speaking of the painter himself, he places him in direct contrast to the sculptor: "Nur dafi, wo Rodins grofies, selbst- bewufites Gleichgewicht zu einer sachlichen Feststellung fiihrt, ihn, den kranken, vereinsamten Alten, die Wut iiber- fallt" (p. 368).

This content downloaded from 194.177.218.24 on Sun, 9 Mar 2014 11:07:48 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Theodore Ziolkowski 303

only rest on their consoles in physical equilibrium as soulless stones; they also partake, as true saints, of the ideal state of being that is summed up for Rilke by this one word.

The saints in their repose are contrasted with the world of the consoles, which they do not deign to look upon. By implication Rilke is re? ferring here to the world of men who have not attained spiritual equilibrium. "Figur und Tier," of course, is merely synecdoche for the whole corps of devils, basilisks, and tormented human beings of the actual portal; but on another level of meaning they stand for mankind. The only problematic word in the second part of the poem, the antithesis, is the verb zertreten. This is an extremely rare word in Rilke's vocabulary (al? though other zer- compounds occur in super- abundance): it appears, for instance, twice toward the beginning of Malte Laurids Brigge (pp. 16 and 58), in the poem "Aus einer Sturm- nacht" (i, 462), and later in the Sonette an Orpheus (i, 762). But these passages are of little aid in determining the meaning of the word in our poem. The parallel instance that immedi? ately flashes to mind is rather the Tenth Elegy, in which Rilke portrays with disgust the cheap, gaudy pleasures that men indulge in so as to deaden their senses to life as it actually is. After mentioning the gilded turmoil and the fulsome monument, the poet turns away in revulsion: "O, wie spurlos zertrate ein Engel ihnen den Trostmarkt ..." (i, 721).14 Zertreten is the verb used to signify the complete extermination of false human existence by a higher being, like the angel, who is in possession of spiritual equilibrium. Important, of course, is the condi- tional form of the verb in the Tenth Elegy, for the angel is too indifferent15 to inflict the punish? ment. In the "Portal" sonnet the conditional becomes a simple preterit, for the saints are not true angels; they are frozen in stone and only represent the higher beings. The use of this verb simply implies the potentiality and heightens the contrast between the two worlds depicted here: that of harmonic equilibrium and the other of psychic instability.

The meaning of the synthesis in the last three verses can be interpreted only by reference to the key word Akrobaten. Rilke's predilection for acrobats as a symbol for struggling mankind extends from his first years in Paris until the very end of his life. In a letter written to Lou Andreas-Salome only a few days after the com- pletion of the Fifth Elegy (19 February 1922) Rilke exclaims: "Und so sind also auch die 'Saltimbanques' da, die mich eigentlich schon

seit der allerersten pariser Zeit so unbedingt angingen und mir immer seither aufgegeben waren." To be sure, allusions to acrobats are sparse in the poems and letters. In a letter written in 1907 Rilke mentions by name a family of acrobats whom he had known personally in Paris for at least two years16?that is, prior to the composition of the poem under considera- tion. His enthusiasm for acrobats made the poet's mind particularly receptive to the magic of Picasso's painting "La Famille des Saltim- banques," and in the summer of 1915 he spent almost four months with the "Saltimbanques" while he was residing in the Munich apartment of Frau Hertha Koenig, the owner of the paint? ing (to whom he subsequently dedicated the Fifth Elegy). During this period he mentioned the painting at least three times in letters?in rapturous tones. A year and a half after the com- pletion of the Fifth Elegy he composed four short prose poems in French under the title "Saltim? banques" (7-11 August 1924). It is irrelevant to the purposes of this paper to what extent the Fifth Elegy is indebted to Picasso's painting.17 What is important is the fact that acrobats emerged as an important symbol in Rilke's mind, and some light may be cast upon our poem by inspecting the word in its symbolic contexts. For, as in the case of the words Gleichgewicht and zertreten, it is highly questionable whether Rilke used the expression simply as an unusual rhyme or merely in order to give a clever twist to an otherwise objective "Dinggedicht."

In the Fifth Elegy it is interesting to find, at one point, that Rilke offers us a visual image that is remarkably similar to the one in "Das Portal": an acrobat balancing, or attempting to balance, an object at the end of a pole (placed upon his forehead?). After describing the skillful acts of the family of acrobats the poet turns away, no longer apostrophizing, and reflects:

14 Katharina Kippenberg, Rainer Maria Rilkes Duineser Elegien und Sonette an Orpheus (Insel-Verlag, 1946), p. 105, assures us that when Rilke read this passage aloud, "schwol- len ihm die Adern an der Stirn, und seine Stimme war voll Zorn."

16 Rilke's term is teilnahmslos, which he used in the letter to Ellen Key ("ohne Teilnahme,,) and which is also to be found, for instance, in Stundenbuch (i, 328) and "Tod des Dichters" (i, 495). 16 See Peter H, von Blanckenhagen, "Picasso and Rilke: 'La Famille des SaltimbanquesV' Measure: A Critical Jour? nal, i (1950), 172; Blanckenhagen gives an English transla? tion of the notebook passage upon which the letter is based. The text of the letter may be found in Dieter Bassermann, Der spate Rilke (Munchen, 1947), p. 415. 17 For a complete discussion of this question, see the article by Blanckenhagen.

This content downloaded from 194.177.218.24 on Sun, 9 Mar 2014 11:07:48 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

304 Rilke's ilPortaV Sonnets

Wo, o wo ist der Ort,?ich trag ihn im Herzen?, wo sie noch lange nicht konnten, noch von einander abfieln, wie sich bespringende, nicht recht paarige Tiere;? wo die Gewichte noch schwer sind; wo noch von ihren vergeblich wirbelnden Staben die Teller torkeln ... (i, 704)

The poet is searching elegiacally for the moment when the acrobats were still unable to balance the plates on the ends of their poles?that is, when they had not yet acquired such perfect physical control of themselves. The solution to this problematic passage is expressed quite clearly in the fourth of the prose poems entitled "Saltimbanques," where Rilke returns to the same problem:

Quelle perfection. Si c'etait dans Fame, quels saints vous feriez!?C'est dans Fame, mais ils ne la touchent que par hazard, dans les rares moments d'une imperceptible maladresse. (n, 714)

In both passages the poet laments the empty virtuosity of the acrobats and denies that the Gleichgewicht of the saint is to be found in the physical balancing feats of the acrobats. Indeed, they approach spiritual harmony most closely in the moments when, forgetting the outside world and the task at hand, they falter and cast a quick inward glance at their souls. Thus the acrobat who is actually engaged in his act (that is, balancing his pole) becomes a symbol for the futile peripheral activities of mankind. It seems reasonable, in view of this interpretation, to as? sume that the figures of the console are compared to acrobats not because, like the latter, they at? tempt to balance a staff on their foreheads, but rather because their efforts to balance the saints resemble the acrobats' manipulations of the balancing rod. In other words, the last three verses of the sonnet may be read as an elaborate metaphor in which Stab is equivalent to saint, and not merely, in line with Berendt, as a simile. (The extended metaphors of the first two sonnets lend credence, through parallelism, to this theory.) A reading of this sort implies a much more dynamic relationship between the saints and the console figures than Berendt's "zarte Benihrung" and produces, moreover, a struc? turally tighter poem.

An interesting link between the late poems and the earlier sonnet is to be found in a frag? ment dealing with "Notre-Dame de Paris" (August 1907):

Vor Zeiten, einst, ein Herz gewesen sein in langer miihsamer Metamorphose,

und endlich nahe an der Fensterrose instandig stehen, um in Stein

unsaglich unbeirrt mit langer Kraft weiterzutragen die beklommnen Wonnen und alles Wehe, das ja nur begonnen, nur aufgeschlagen war, anfangerhaft.

Und jetzt es konnen und es plotzlich ganz aushalten, wenn es kommt und gar nicht endet, seiner Gewalt und seinem Glanz entschlossen iiberstehend zugewendet,?

es konnen plotzlich, lautlos das vollenden was wir, zu groB fiir uns, beginnen sehn, und lachelnd, in der einen von den Blenden, alles, bis an die Engel, uberstehn. (n, 350-351)

In this extended wish the poet, as the following fragment makes even more obvious, identifies himself fully with the stone figures of the cathe- dral. Here Rilke, not concerned with the repre? sentation of the visual image confronting him, leads us through the metamorphoses that precede what we have chosen to call equilibrium and then shows us the result: konnen in the pregnant sense of the Fifth Elegy. But konnen refers here, of course, not to the physical virtuosity of the acro? bats, but rather to the inner balance ultimately achieved by the statues (and mankind). This poem mentions neither acrobats nor Gleich? gewicht, but it is significant for two reasons. In the first place, Rilke here again employs the stone figures of the cathedral (not Chartres!) as vehicles to express unattained and then attained harmony: the figures of the console and the saints in their niches. By a quick shift of perspective, as it were, the poet depicts the console figures as we have them in "Das Portal" and then switches to the state of their existence in the projected ideal of the elegy and the French poem, when they will have attained spiritual balance. In the second place, these strophes stress the fact that spiritual harmony is indeed an attainable ideal; in this sense they bear out Rilke's use of the word Gleichgewicht to refer to a living man like Rodin. In other words, the tension between mankind and the saints is not irreconcilable

In this fragment as well as in the late French poem we have found the same polarity that is expressed in our sonnet. The saints, in their spiritual balance, are juxtaposed to mankind, which contorts itself wildly in the effort to achieve mere physical equilibrium. It is the irony of the sonnet that mankind upholds the saints precisely through its contortions, thereby pre- cluding the introspection that is necessary to at? tain true inner harmony. Yet, according to the fragment, the situation is by no means hopeless

This content downloaded from 194.177.218.24 on Sun, 9 Mar 2014 11:07:48 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Theodore Ziolkowski 305

(as Berendt implies), for there exists the possibil? ity of progression. The tension of the poem is resolved in the final act of balance that endows the futile actions of mankind with a provisional meaning (until they too achieve true equilibrium). Thus Rilke finds harmony and unity on the sub? jective level as well as in the visual image, for only the saints and console figures together produce a perfect whole. This interpretation is perfectly in accord with his views as expressed in other connections (and these views in turn re? flect Rodin once again). In a letter to Lou An- dreas-Salome (15 January 1904) he writes, with reference to an ancient fresco he had once seen: "So war Ruhe und Bewegung in diesem Bild nebeneinandergestellt, nicht als Kontrast, als ein Gleichnis vielmehr, als eine endliche Einheit, die sich langsam schloft wie eine Wunde, die heilte; denn auch die Bewegung war schon Ruhe. ..." And in his book on Rodin there are countless similar passages; I shall cite only one:

Und nicht allein in den beruhmten Werken und den weithin sichtbaren war dieses Lebendigsein: das Unbe- achtete, Kleine, das Namenlose und Uberzahlige war nicht weniger erf iillt von dieser tiefen, innerlichen Er- regtheit, von dieser reichen und uberraschenden Un- ruhe des Lebendigen. Auch die Stille, wo Stille war, bestand aus hundert Bewegungsmomenten, die sich im Gleichgewicht hielten. . . . Und ganz ahnlich war es mit den Tieren, die auf den Kathedralen standen und safien oder unter den Konsolen kauerten, ver- kummert and gekrummt und zu trage zum Tragen. (pp. 9-10)

It was this harmony through the resolution of ten- sions that Rilke was trying to express in his poem?a harmony on two levels: the visual, ob? jective harmony of the actual portal, which he had learned through Rodin to recognize, and the implicit, subjective harmony that he sought, with every fibre of his being, throughout his entire life.

This interpretation is at variance in one respect with the accepted view of Rilke's "Dinggedicht," which regards it as a poem "in dem die Statik herrscht und die Dynamik aufgehort hat."18 For the whole essence of the three "Portal" sonnets lies in the contrast, in the first and second, be? tween static and dynamic and, in the third, the restatement of these themes with the ingenious resolution. Kurt Oppert is less dogmatic in his definition, conceding that the "Dinggedicht" does not exclude "die typische, sozusagen die stehende Bewegung eines Dings,"19 but he is thinking not of tensions but only of objects such as the Roman fountain, the panther, and the

carrousel. Hans-Rudolf Muller has delineated very clearly the "Spannung zwischen Ewigkeit und Verganglichkeit, Unbegrenztheit und Zeit- lichkeit" (p. 163) that was a great concern of Rilke's during the period of the Neue Gedichte, but he does not extend his theory logically to apply to any specific "Dinggedicht." No one leaves room for the possibility that both terms of the polarity might be expressed in the same poem: not only the repose of "things," but also the turmoil of life. This seems to be precisely the case in our poem. It is not, however, the only case of this sort, for in a number of "Dinggedichte" the subject of the poet (and mankind) is placed into a direct, albeit implicit, contrast with the object of the poem. In "Romische Sarkophage," for instance, the opening lines immediately es? tablish the principle of tension between the poet and the sarcophagus: it is not sheer objective portrayal with no dynamics. (This poem, inci- dentally, also implies the synthesis that we have established in the third "Portal" sonnet.) Or, in the sonnet which opens the group of cathedral poems, the figure of the angel is explicitly con? trasted with mankind. Apart from the "Portal" sonnets, however, there is perhaps no other true "Dinggedicht" in which the subjective element of the polarity is so vividly represented.

These observations conflict in no way with the standard definitions of Rilke's conception of "Ding," of which Katharina Kippenberg's is the most succinct: "Sie sind dem Werden entrtickt und ein Sein geworden."20 They merely suggest that the definition of "Dinggedicht," in Rilke's case, might be broadened so as to include the principle of tension between subject and ob? ject: both implicitly and explicitly stated. For this is a principle that obsessed Rilke until the end of his life, and we find one of its most famous expressions, long after the "Portal" poems, in the Sonette an Orpheus:

Wir sind die Treibenden. Aber den Schritt der Zeit, nehmt ihn als Kleinigkeit im immer Bleibenden. (i, 745)

Yale University New Haven, Conn.

18 Goertz, p. 67, who is quoting Robert Faesi, Rainer Maria Rilke (Amalthea-Bucherei, 1922). 19 "Das Dinggedicht: Eine Kunstform bei Morike, Meyer und Rilke," Deutsche Vierteljahrsschrift, iv (1926), 769. 20 Rainer Maria Rilke: Ein Beitrag (Leipzig, 1935), p. 116.

This content downloaded from 194.177.218.24 on Sun, 9 Mar 2014 11:07:48 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Article Contentsp. 298p. 299p. 300p. 301p. 302p. 303p. 304p. 305

Issue Table of ContentsPMLA, Vol. 74, No. 3 (Jun., 1959), pp. 161-312The Vespasian Psalter Gloss: Original or Copy? [pp. 161-177]The Romaunt of the Rose and Source Manuscripts [pp. 178-183]Foscolo and Lord Holland's "Letters of Petrarch" [pp. 184-190]Milton: Political Beliefs and Polemical Methods, 1659-60 [pp. 191-202]Thomas D'urfey, the Pope-Philips Quarrel, and the Shepherd's Week [pp. 203-212]Henry Fielding's the Female Husband: Fact and Fiction [pp. 213-224]Garrick's Zara [pp. 225-232]A Would-Be Philosophe: Jean Philippe Rameau [pp. 233-248]Beatrice's "Pernicious Mistake" in the Cenci [pp. 249-253]Background to Modern Painters: The Tradition and the Turner Controversy [pp. 254-267]Verlaine's "Art Potique" Re-Examined[pp. 268-275]The Watcher Betrayed and the Fatal Woman: Some Recurring Patterns in Zola [pp. 276-284]Ibsen's Concept of Tragedy [pp. 285-297]Rilke's "Portal" Sonnets [pp. 298-305]"Death in the Woods" and the Artist's Self in Sherwood Anderson [pp. 306-311]Back Matter [pp. 312-312]