ysis of Sonnet by Rainer Rilke?

This translation approximates the original rhythm & rhyme of The Sonnets to Orpheus.. It is, so far as I know, the only translation to attempt this. The complex rhyme schemes are an integral part of the work, which, content aside, is a virtuoso study in the possibilities of sonnet form. Written concurrently with later parts of the Duino Elegies, the "small russet sails" of the sonnets compliment the dark rigging of the greater work. Duino Elegies are freeform unrhymed verse; The Sonnets to Orpheus: bright, discrete songs, ranging in tone from transcendent to cantankerous. A handful are of drastically inferior quality to the others, as though spuriously added by a surreptitious hand. I believe the explanation is that they had profound sentimental value to Rilke, written at a time of grief at the death of a young friend, the dancer Vera Knoop, and are included on her account.I acknowledge indebtedness to many previous translators of The Sonnets for guidance in nuance and a variety of perceptions concerning relative weights among the images.