Rainer Maria Rilke's mother dressed him as a girl for the first five years of his life to replace the daughter she had lost. His father sent him to a military academy that traumatized him. From this wreckage, Rilke produced some of the most exquisitely beautiful poetry in any language — the Duino Elegies, the Sonnets to Orpheus, and the Letters to a Young Poet that have consoled generations of aspiring artists.

This episode traces Rilke from his devastating childhood through the years of wandering patronage, the decade-long struggle to complete the Duino Elegies, and the leukemia death that ended his life at fifty-one.

• The mother who dressed him as a girl and the military academy that broke him
• The years of aristocratic patronage, the marriage to Clara Westhoff, and the restless wandering
• The Duino Elegies — ten y ...