Abstract
This study employs Dennis Klass’ (1997) continuing bonds theory to analyze Rainer Maria Rilke’s poem
“My Life is Not This Precipitous Hour”. It attempts to display the poem as a sublimation of Rilke’s belief
that life must not be stunted in favour of a preoccupation with isolation following bereavement. Klass
suggests that while full recovery is not always possible, moving on, as is widely believed, is not necessary
for a normal life post-loss. In fact, recovery is equally possible if one chooses not to move on and instead,
integrates the deceased into their present and future lives in a healthy and compatible way. This view of
mourning directly contradicted pre-established ideas, suggesting that recovery entails a complete removal
of the deceased from the livings’ lives. Using this theorization of grief as the locus, an in-depth analysis of
the aforementioned poem has been done. Rilke’s letters of condolence to several of his friends have also
been incorporated so as to align his ideas with loss and recovery theories of the late twentieth century.
Sohaira Khalid, Amna Umer Cheema. (2020) The Unity of Horror and Bliss: Rilke on Death, Grief, and God, Journal of the Research Society of Pakistan, Volume 57, Issue-3.
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