 With news of the death of his daughter 's friend , Wera Knoop ( 1900 – 1919 ) , Rilke set to work on Sonnets to Orpheus . The Sonnets frequently refer to Wera , both directly where he addresses her by name and indirectly in allusions to a " dancer " or the mythical Eurydice . Rilke wrote to the young girl 's mother stating that Wera 's ghost was " commanding and <unk> " him to write . In a rush of inspiration , Rilke worked on the Sonnets and renewed his focus towards completing the remainder of Duino Elegies . In one week , Rilke completed the unfinished elegies , and from 2 February to 23 February 1922 he completed all the 55 sonnets of the two parts of Sonnets to Orpheus . Rilke considered both collections to be " of the same birth " . In a letter to Klossowska on 9 February 1922 , Rilke wrote : " what weighed me down and caused my anguish most is done ... I am still trembling from it . ... And I went out to caress old Muzot , just now , in the moonlight . " Two days later , completing the last of his work on the Elegies in the evening , he wrote to Lou Andreas @-@ Salomé that he had finished " everything in a few days ; it was a boundless storm , a hurricane of the spirit , and whatever inside me is like thread and webbing , framework , it all cracked and bent . No thought of food . " 
