The Lyrical Subject as a Poet in the Works of

Rainer Maria Rilke has been one of the most challenging and fascinating issues of Slavic and comparative literature studies for several decades. Many books and essays have been written on the various aspects of this topic1, but it seems to be one of those inexhaustible themes on which scholars will continue to focus their attention for a long time to come. Before proceeding further, let us briefly recall some basic moments of their relation-ship. Reaching its peak in the Twenties, when the three writers exchanged letters and po-ems, their dialogue actually began in the previous decade. The symbolic significance of Pasternak’s first and only meeting with Rilke as a child, which he describes at the beginning of Oxrannaja gramota2, clearly hints at the fundamental meaning of the former’s readings of Mir zur Feier, Das Stunden-Buch and Das Buch von Bilder, and at the importance of their impact on the formation of Pasternak’s unique poetic manner in the years marked 1 The bibliography on this theme is very extensive. For the best, most recent and detaile