Henrikas Radauskas and Rainer Maria Rilke: parallels in their poetry

This article focuses on the parallels between the metaphorical worlds of two writers, namely, the Lithuanian poet Henrikas Radauskas and the Austrian poet Rainer Maria Rilke. The methodology of this article is based on the theory of the metaphor-symbol elaborated by Paul Ricoeur. The metaphor is ambivalently related to the symbol, According to Ricouer, "a metaphor is more than a symbol, on the other hand, a symbol is more than a metaphor" (Ricoeur 2000: 81). He further claims that "a metaphor is only a linguistic symbols surface and the twodimensional structure of the symbol gives it the power to connect the semantic structure with the non-semantic layer which is hidden in the depth of human experience"