Inna Vorobey

A hermeneutic-linguistic approach to the poetry of R.M. Rilke1

Abstract

This article offers a hermeneutic-linguistic approach to poetic text that combines

achievements of linguistics, hermeneutics, cognitive linguistics and poetics. The poetic
word and the poetic concept are investigated through the poetic concept ‘God’ in the
poetry of the Austrian poet of 20th century R.M. Rilke. The study is based on
distinguishing between sense, meaning and concept. The study technique includes:
concordance, predicate’s analysis and categorization, hermeneutical circle,
interpretation.

Keywords

“Book of Hours”, concept, concordance, crystallization, dispersion, hermeneutics,

interpretation, meaning, mega-sense, poetic word, Rilke, sense

Hermeneutic-linguistic approach

My approach to poetic texts combines hermeneutics and linguistics. Its main points are:

1. The understanding of something means applying hermeneutics to it.

Analysing and understanding of poetic texts needs hermeneutical approach.

2. Poetry creates a special poetic world expressed by words of natural

language.

1
This article is a part of my article written in Russian: Воробей И.А. О рассеянии поэтического
концепта в связи с процессами его кристаллизации /Герменевтический круг: текст – смысл –
интерпретация [Текст]: отв. ред. И.П. Черкасова. – Армавир: РИЦ АГПА, 2011. – C.118-125. The
translation is mine.

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 3. Word has meaning common for all speakers. In poetry it can get

additional, unusual senses. Meaning belongs to language. Sense belongs to

poetic world and combines forming concepts (mega-senses).

4. These senses and concepts are represented in poetic text by means of

words. Thus, use of linguistic techniques is required for their analysis. The

hermeneutical circle is required for their understanding and interpreting.

5. The key notions are ‘poetic word’, ‘meaning’, ‘sense’, ‘concept’.

Poetic word
Word in poetry has following particular qualities:

1. Poetic word is figurative and image-bearing because of its semantic

complexity.

2. Poetic word can have in context not only meaning fixed in dictionary but

also new uncommon senses. These non-common senses are determined

both by dictionary meanings and by relations with other words in a poem. It

is very important to distinguish between its meaning and sense of poetic

word.

2. Poetic word is a sounding word.

3. Poetic word reflects a poet’s system of beliefs. Poetic word creates a special

poetic world different from the reality.

4. Outside poetic world it loses its special poetic sense.

The question, whether a lexicological word or other language unit can be regarded as a

poetic word, is unsolved nowadays.

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Meaning, sense, concept

Sense is the basic notion for poetic word. One word can be found in a text many

times and have many different senses. On the contrary, one sense can be expressed by

different words.

I suggest the following understanding of these notions: meaning is the common

content that native speakers connect with a particular sound. Sense is an occasional,

depending on context content. Concept (mega-sense)2 is a word sense, but usual and

global, because it can be expressed by different words. It is not connected with a

particular word, and is determined by culture. This relation to culture is one of its main

characteristics. It can be translated into other languages. Concept exists in mind and is

expressed in language. It connects the collaborative and an individual mind, the society

and an individual.

Features of sense in poetry

Sense in poetry can be crystallized and dispersed.
In my opinion ‘crystallization’ is the process of shaping of mega-sense from many

elementary primary senses through the entire text. Each new word in poetic text extends

and confirms this mega-sense.

The most used poetic word (keyword) can become the main point of crystallization

or the name of the concept.

The process opposite to ‘crystallization’ is ‘dispersion’. Dispersion means it isn’t

possible to shape the primary senses and combine them into one mega-sense. They have

nothing in common. There is no basis for comparison.

Meaning is a static structure fixed by linguists, sense is a dynamic structure that

emerges and develops in a text. Concept combines these static and dynamic features.

Research technique

2
Concept and mega-sense are synonyms in this research.

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 The first step is the finding out key words by means of frequency word books.

However, this step can be omitted if concepts are already known (as in the case under

review).
The second step is the establishing of concordance. Concordance is an alphabetical

index of all the words in a text or corpus of texts, showing every contextual occurrence

of a word (American Heritage Dictionary, 1985: 306).

For my purpose concordance can help: a) to reveal frequency of words in poems; b)

to show the nearest context of a poetic word; c) to find out concepts.

The third step is detection of contextual senses of a poetic word. For this purpose I

use the words distribution method. Predicates and attributes of the word under study are

extracted from the text. Than they are generalized or brought together to one or several

predicate word-families on sense basis.

Than it is needed to find out other words have this sense too (contextual synonyms).
The fourth step is summarizing of data by means of interpretation using the

hermeneutical circle.

Analysis
To illustrate this technique, I suggest the analysis of two poems of Rainer Maria Rilke,

the Austrian poet of 20th century.

R.M. Rilke deals with universal categories that inspired philosophers and artists: being,

existence, human, god, relations between god and human, place and role of human in

the reality, etc. One of the main concepts in Rilke’s poetry is ‘God’. The main point of

crystallization and the concept’s name is the word ‘god’. The concordance of this

lexeme is made at the second step of analysis: this lexeme is used in the cycle ‘The

Book of Hours’ 46 times, 30 of which are found in the first volume. Let me demonstrate

a small part of concordance of the lexeme ‘god’:

Gott
ich kreise um Gott, um den uralten Turm (1, ‘Ich kreise um Gott‘)1
Du, Nachbar Gott, wenn ich dich (1, ‘Du, Nachbar Gott’)
wir nicht wollen: Gott reift (1, ‘ Daraus, dass Einer’)
Wer kann dich halten, Gott (2, ‘Du musst nicht bangen’)

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 Gottes
der Frühling Gottes war dort (1, ‘Der Ast vom Baume Gott’)

eines Gottes
Gossudar, dem Reiche eines Gottes Recht erwiesen (3, ‘Da sah ich auch Paläste‘)

The poems are written as prayers, that’s why the main contextual synonym of lexeme

‘god’ is the pronoun ‘du’(you) used by the main character along with different

metaphors, for example: du Dunkelheit, Du dunkelnder Grund, du Ding der Dinge, du,

Nachbar Gott, du hohes Mittelschiff, etc.

Now I would like to illustrate the process of sense crystallization in the poem ‘Wir

bauen an dir mit zitternden Händen’.

Wir bauen an dir mit zitternden Händen We build on you with our trembling hands,

und wir türmen Atom auf Atom. Towering atom on atom.

Aber wer kann dich vollenden, But who can complete your plan,

du Dom. You our cathedral?

Was ist Rom? What is Rom?

Es zerfällt. All but scattered.

Was ist die Welt? What is the world?

Sie wird zerschlagen It will be shattered

eh deine Türme Kuppeln tragen, before there are cupolas on your towers,

eh aus Meilen von Mosaik before the miles of mosaik floors

deine strahlende Stirne stieg. give rise to your haloed head.

Aber manchmal im Traum But at times in a dream

kann ich deinen Raum I have overseen

überschaun, your gilded space,

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 tief vom Beginne from its deep foundations

bis zu des Daches goldenem Grate. up to the highest golden groin.

Und ich seh: meine Sinne And I see: my senses

bilden und baun paint and create

die letzten Zierate. the last decorations.

(Rilke et al., 2011: 8, 9) (Rilke et al., 2011: 10, 12)

The first thing attracts my attention is the direct address to God: du Dom (you Dom).

Dom is one of the most important senses of mega-sense ‘God’.

In this poem Dom is the main point of crystallization. Which language expressions in

the poem are connected with this word? They are predicates and attributes: bauen,

bilden türmen, vollenden, Türme, Kuppeln, Meilen von Mosaik, des Daches goldenem

Grate, Zierate. Therefore, Dom is a metaphor for God. It is a building associated with

God. This metaphor can be expected by readers.

However, in the poem this metaphor receives unexpected additional senses. People take

part in building of this cathedral Wir bauen an dir, wir türmen Atom auf Atom, it means

that God is people’s creation. This idea sounds blasphemous. Another line of the poem

explains this idea. God is beautiful (Türme, Kuppeln, Meilen von Mosaik, des Daches

goldenem Grate, Zierate), but incomplete (wer kann dich vollenden). Why is God

incomplete? Readers can find the answer in (meine Sinne /bilden und baun /die letzten

Zierate). This line gives us the answer to all the questions: people including the main

character create God by means of their thoughts and desires (Sinne). Creating of God

will be continued as long as people think about God.

However, not all people take part in creating God. People who take part in it are

represented in the poem and in the whole cycle as ‘we’.

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 Thus, the sense ‘becoming a cathedral’ is expressed in this poem. Each next word in

the poem amplifies and confirms this sense. I call this process of sense shaping

‘crystallization’. The point of crystallization is the address to God Dom.

Let me illustrate the process of sense dispersion in the poem ‘In tiefen Nächten grab ich

dich, du Schatz’.

In tiefen Nächten grab ich dich, du Schatz. In the deep nights I dig for you, O Treasure!

Denn alle Überflüsse, die ich sah, To seek you over the wide world I roam,

sind Armut und armsäliger Ersatz For all abundance is but meager measure

für deine Schönheit, die noch nie geschah. Of your bright beauty which is yet to come.

Aber der Weg zu dir ist furchtbar weit Over the road to you the leaves are blowing,

und, weil ihn lange keiner ging, verweht. Few follow it, the way is long and steep.

O du bist einsam. Du bist Einsamkeit, You dwell in solitude—Oh, does your glowing

du Herz, das zu entfernten Talen geht. Heart in some far off valley lie asleep?

Und meine Hände, welche blutig sind My bloody hands, with digging bruised, I've lifted,

vom Graben, heb ich offen in den Wind, Spread like a tree I stretch them in the air

so dass sie sich verzweigen wie ein Baum. To find you before day to night has drifted;

Ich sauge dich mit ihnen aus dem Raum I reach out into space to seek you there ...

als hättest du dich einmal dort zerschellt Then, as though with a swift impatient gesture,

in einer ungeduldigen Gebärde, Flashing from distant stars on sweeping wing,

und fielest jetzt, eine zerstäubte Welt, You come, and over earth a magic vesture

aus fernen Sternen wieder auf die Erde Steals gently as the rain falls in the spring.

sanft wie ein Frühlingsregen fällt.

(Rilke, 1981) (Rilke, 2012)

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 As in the first poem, addresses to God attract my attention: du Schatz, eine

zerstäubte Welt, du Herz. There is nothing in them that unites them. The only common

basis for them is their reference to God. They are the points of crystallization.

The first point of crystallization ‘God as a treasure’ has predicates: du Schatz, in

tiefen Nächten grab ich dich, für deine Schönheit, die noch nie geschah.

The second point ‘dispersed God’ attracts als hättest du dich einmal dort zerschellt,

eine zerstäubte Welt, sanft wie ein Frühlingsregen.

The third point ‘God as a heart’: du Herz, das zu entfernten Talen geht.

The fourth point ‘God is lonely’ o du bist einsam, du bist Einsamkeit, der Weg zu dir

ist furchtbar weit und…verweht.

The poem begins with address to God du Schatz. The common understanding of

treasure is something very valuable, beautiful, and hidden. The main character wants to

find out this treasure deep in the ground (In tiefen Nächten grab ich dich). This line can

have another sense that arises from the concept ‘Night’ in Rilke’s poetry. One of the

senses in the structure of concept ‘Night’ is ‘the time of insights and epiphany’. Thus,

the main character regards nights as an opportunity to find out God. The metaphor grab

points to the sense finding out God as very complicated and requires effort as much as

burying treasure. The second and the third lines describe God’s beauty. The words noch

nie geschah lead to the sense God as Dom to its sense ‘becoming a cathedral’.

The second strophe contains the sense ‘God is lonely’, God is solitude (Einsamkeit),

because not all people want to come to God. The way to him is difficult, it takes a lot of

energy. No one has been interested in God and weil ihn lange keiner ging, verweht

people lost him.

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 The next line explains us how people can comprehend God. This comprehension is

irrational, unreasonable. The metaphor du Herz represents this sense. Heart is a symbol

of feelings. People must feel God in order to understand, to cognize him. This

understanding of God is very difficult and reminds of a hidden treasure Und meine

Hände, welche blutig sind vom Graben. The main character calls this process ‘digging

out’. The metaphor Hände blutig confirms that it takes a lot of energy to find God.

Blood is a symbol of vital powers.

The third strophe has a different sense. God is dispersed in space als hättest du dich

einmal dort zerschellt, eine zerstäubte Welt. God is associated with rain. Spring rain is a

religious symbol of God’s grace connected with life-giving and fertilizing power of rain.

If God sees humans’ efforts to find him out, he makes it possible: als hättest du dich

einmal dort zerschellt . Furthermore, God is waiting for these efforts in einer

ungeduldigen Gebärde. The main character can join to God: Ich sauge dich.

God is in heaven, over the earth, and falls on earth. The main character feels as if he

were a tree that gets its powers from earth and rain so dass sie sich verzweigen wie ein

Baum.

The main character begins looking for God on earth (between people and things).

This process is very difficult and takes away vital powers. However, this path can be

wrong, because God is not hidden as a treasure, he is open to all people as rain. People

want to have God only for themselves. They choose the longest way to him, nobody can

reach God. That is why God is lonely. The easiest way to God is through heart and

feelings. God is open to everyone, and it is necessary for him to be discovered.

Concept dispersion has following directions:

1. God is a hidden treasure (reasonable understanding).

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 2. God is a heart (perceptional understanding).

3. God is lonely (many people take the rational way to god).

These three senses originate from mystic ideas of Meister Eckhart and Angelus

Silesius.

There are also Orthodoxy ideas in this concept’s structure:

1. God is open (God’s glace).

2. God is dispersed in space.

All these senses shape mega-sense ‘God’. The sense of concept is not crystallized in

the poem, but dispersed. However, both processes are connected with each other: we

observe crystallization inside predicate groups, but mega-sense is dispersed, divided.

Concept ‘God’ in Rilke’s “Book of Hours” is a cultural dynamic structure consisting

of two main parts: the common one and an individual one. The first reflects the common

religious understanding of God as the supreme being. The second consists of individual

metaphors that realize poet’s understanding of some religious and philosophical

traditions. The processes of crystallization and dispersion reflect the dynamic traits of

concept. The common part carrying cultural archetypes provides concept with static

nature.

Notes

1. The number shows the volume of ‘The Book of Hours’ (1 - ‘The Book of the

Monkish Life’, 2 - ‘The Book of Pilgrimage’, 3 – ‘The Book of Poverty and Death’).

The second index position is the poem’s name.

References

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1. American Heritage Dictionary (1985). Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company.

2. Jakobson R (1960) Closing Statement: Linguistics and Poetics. In: Style in

Language. Edited by T.A. Sebeok. New York: Wiley, 1960: 350-377.

3. Rilke R (1981) Gedichte. Moskau: Verlag Progress.

4. Rilke R (2012) Poems. Available at: http://www.gutenberg.org/files/38594/38594-

h/38594-h.htm (Accessed 16 July 2012).

5. Rilke R, Vilian R, Ranson S and Sutherland M (2011) Selected poems. New York:

Oxford University Press.

Distributed in Cognitive Linguistics: Cognition, Language, Gesture eJournal Vol 5,

Issue 11, March 27, 2013

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