Rainer Maria Rilke: The Book of Hours

What does it mean to address God not with certainty or doctrine, but with the full range of human emotion—love, fear, anger, bewilderment, tenderness, loneliness, and exaltation? Rainer Maria Rilke's The Book of Hours is a masterwork of modern spiritual poetry, a collection of intimate, audacious prayers that speak to an ultimately unknowable deity with radical honesty and lyric beauty. Written between 1899 and 1903, these poems mark the origin of Rilke's distinctive voice—where clarity of diction meets unexpected imagery, where contemplation becomes conversation, and where the search for meaning unfolds through the full spectrum of human experience.

At first glance, The Book of Hours might seem like traditional devotional poetry. But Rilke's speaker is no pious supplicant reciting familiar formulas. Instead, he addresses God with startling intimacy and candor, moving through doubt and certainty, darkness and light, questioning and praising. The poems are structured as a monk's prayers across three "books"—The Book of Monastic Life, The Book of Pilgrimage, and The Book of Poverty and Death—yet they transcend any single religious tradition, speaking to the universal human longing to encounter the sacred, to find meaning in existence, to touch something beyond ourselves. Rilke invites us into a space where prayer becomes poetry, where the divine is both near and distant, where the search itself becomes a form of devotion.

For readers seeking contemplative wisdom, The Book of Hours offers a profound guide to spiritual seeking that honors both faith and doubt, certainty and mystery. Rilke doesn't offer easy comfort or doctrinal answers; he shows us what it means to live in relationship with the unknowable, to pray with our whole being, to seek God through the full range of human emotion. This is a book for anyone who longs for a spirituality that is honest, intimate, and alive—who seeks to address the sacred not with formulas but with the truth of their own experience. It's a reminder that the deepest prayer is not recitation but presence, and that the search for God is inseparable from the search for ourselves.

What You'll Discover
Rainer Maria Rilke's masterwork of modern spiritual poetry
Intimate prayers addressing God through love, fear, doubt, and exaltation
Three books: Monastic Life, Pilgrimage, and Poverty and Death
Exploration of the sacred through radical honesty and lyric beauty
Dual-language edition with acclaimed Edward Snow translation
Profound questions on faith, doubt, and the search for meaning

Rainer Maria Rilke (1875-1926) was a Bohemian-Austrian poet and novelist widely regarded as one of the most lyrically intense German-language poets. His work explores themes of solitude, love, death, and the search for the divine with unparalleled depth and beauty. The Book of Hours (Das Stunden-Buch), written early in his career, established his voice as a poet of spiritual seeking and existential contemplation. It has become a beloved classic of modern devotional poetry, treasured by readers across traditions for its honest, intimate approach to the sacred. This dual-language edition features the acclaimed translation by Edward Snow, praised as "the most trustworthy and exhilarating of Rilke's contemporary translators."

Perfect for: Readers seeking contemplative poetry and spiritual wisdom, those drawn to honest, intimate prayer and devotional literature, students of Rilke and German poetry, anyone navigating faith and doubt, readers interested in mystical poetry across traditions, admirers of modern spiritual classics, seekers exploring the relationship between poetry and prayer, students of existential and contemplative literature, those interested in the intersection of art and spirituality.

W. W. Norton hardcover dual-language edition with Edward Snow translation. Rilke's spiritual masterpiece—offering intimate, honest prayers that address the sacred through the full range of human experience.