Rilke's Early Poetry investigates the process of creative labor in Rilke's earlier poetic works. Using themes that are present in The Book of Hours, The Book of Images, and Eleven Visions, Nicholas Reynolds shows Rilke's underlying theory of creative labor, which requires the artist to uncover the unconscious, i.e., the self beyond conceptualization. Each chapter highlights a central gesture in Rilke's works. Through a careful analysis of gestures, language, and the interplay of identities, Reynolds illuminates the ways in which Rilke's poetry navigates the complexities of existence, offering readers a path to understanding and potentially transcending the challenges of modern life. This book provides rigorous insights to appeal to academics, researchers, and graduate students within literary studies and continental philosophy, and more specifically German poetry, modernist poetry, or Rilke himself.

Nicholas Carroll Reynolds teaches German in the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures at Trinity University, USA. He also teaches Philosophy and International Studies, as well as a Study Abroad program in Berlin for Trinity's Center for International Engagement. He specializes in the intersections of modern literature and philosophy, particularly in their ethical/intersubjective aspects and is the author of Sense and Creative Labor in Rainer Maria Rilke's Prose Works.