 Because of the profound impact that the war had on him , Rilke expressed a hope in an 1919 letter that the task of the intellectual in a post @-@ war world would be to render the world right . It would be " to prepare in men 's hearts the way for those gentle , mysterious , trembling transformations from which alone the understandings and harmonies of a serener future will proceed . " Rilke envisioned his Duino Elegies and the Sonnets to Orpheus as part of his contribution . 
