Rilkes Widmungsgedichte für Hedwig Bernhard

In the summer of 1913, Rilke spent two weeks in the Black Forest resort of Bad Rippoldsau, where he had an intense, fleeting encounter with a young actress named Hedwig Bernhard. This article undertakes a close reading of the two poems written during this period, placing them within both the narrow, biographical context and the broader, poetological context of Rilke’s creative crisis. In particular, the marked increase in dialogic intensity over the two poems – indicated by the transition from ‘Sie’ to ‘du’ – suggests a rare moment of renunciation of Orphic narcissism in favour of a genuine emotional vulnerability.