Das Buch der Bilder

Buch der Bilder, Das, a volume of poetry by Rilke, published in 1902 and consisting of two parts containing 47 poems. In 1906 a new edition converted the original volume into Bk. I, and added Bk. II with 42 new poems, many of them much longer than anything in I. The work represents a half-way stage between the vague emotionalism of Rilke's first phase and the precise and plastic style of his maturity. It is marked by an attempt to ‘fix’ poems structurally by the use of images which, besides existing for their own sake, also have an emotional significance. Not all the poems attempt this (e.g. ‘Die Stille’, ‘Herbsttag’, ‘Herbst’); but ‘Ritter’, ‘Pont du Carousel’, and ‘Von den Fontänen’ look forward to the later Rilke.