This Week's PD Prose Feature

"If some other poets from his generation and beyond tied both their spiritual disquietude and moments of inspiration to the cause of their nation, to the historic situation, or to their starkly accentuated biography, Rilke, we know, remained free in this respect; he kept his creative fire far from the furnaces of political or societal passions. There is one exception though: in August 1914 he briefly shared the enthusiasm of German crowds for the just-beginning Great War (he was strengthened in this by his recent discovery of Friedrich Holderlin's poetry, which could be read in a patriotic mode). This happened in his Five Songs, written in the first weeks of the war. These poems sang the praise of a god of war as a great renewer of humanity. Later on, Rilke never joined those poets who wept over the disaster of the same war, which failed to renew anything except the death industry." —Adam Zagajewski MORE

Poets' Picks Go Online

Mark Doty
presents
"To His Books"
by Henry Vaughan, as Poetry Daily continues its 2009 Poet's Pick series for web readers.

Congratulations
Eleanor Ross Taylor
Charles Wright
2009 Recipients

The Carole Weinstein Prize in Poetry, established in 2005, is awarded annually to a poet with strong connections to central Virginia.This year, however, two prizes of $10,000 have been given, recognizing significant recent contribution to the art of poetry and a broad range of achievement in the field by Eleanor Ross Taylor and Charles Wright.