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If you are alone at cliff’s edge, beaten by a harsh salt wind, the ruins of the 11th century behind you, a steep rocky drop to the sea before you—I can think of no better company than Rilke, who, in just such a position, heard:

“Who, if I cried out, would hear me among the hierarchies of angels? ”

That’s the first line of his first elegy written at Duino Castle in Italy in 1910.

All ten elegies were published in 1923.

Today I will read for you the ninth one.

read my entire essay here

The book I’m reading from.