Rilke - Sonnets To Orpheus 8 Poem by Michael Maxwell Steer

All our gains the machine now threatens.
Once our servant it now drives us.
Where we cherished craftsmanship
now its just cheapskate joinery.

No part of modern life's untouched.
Quietly ticking in the corner of
a factory which it plans to take over
machinery watches, pulses, explodes.

Yet still to us existence is
enchanted, pure as once in Eden -
who can feel it and not kneel?

As we sense its meaning language
fades away to music, and the
fragile temple forms within us.


A free version of Rilke's Sonnets to Orpheus Bk2.10
Alles Erworbne bedroht die Maschine, solange

To hear my setting of these words visit soundcloud.com/mmsteer/ search
sonnets-to-orpheus-rilke