 The Duino Elegies are intensely religious , mystical poems that weigh beauty and existential suffering . The poems employ a rich symbolism of angels and salvation but not in keeping with typical Christian interpretations . Rilke begins the first elegy in an invocation of philosophical despair , asking : " Who , if I cried out , would hear me among the hierarchies of angels ? " ( Wer , wenn ich <unk> , <unk> mich denn aus der Engel <unk> ? ) and later declares that " every angel is terrifying " ( <unk> Engel ist <unk> ) . While labelling of these poems as " elegies " would typically imply melancholy and lamentation , many passages are marked by their positive energy and " unrestrained enthusiasm . " Together , the Duino Elegies are described as a metamorphosis of Rilke 's " ontological torment " and an " impassioned monologue about coming to terms with human existence " discussing themes of " the limitations and insufficiency of the human condition and fractured human consciousness ... man 's loneliness , the perfection of the angels , life and death , love and lovers , and the task of the poet . " 
