Die Weise vom Leben und Tod des Cornets Christoph Rilke

Weise vom Leben und Tod des Cornets Christoph Rilke, Die, a short narrative in poetic prose by R. M. Rilke, written in 1899 and published in 1906. It recounts the death in action of Cornet Rilke of Langenau, standard-bearer of an Austrian regiment of horse in Hungary during the Turkish war of 1663. Rilke implies that he and the Cornet, a historically authenticated person, belonged to the same ancestral line, but although the basis of the poem is historical, this relationship is improbable. The narrative was for many years one of Rilke's most popular works.