Horace, Odes 4.7 and Rainer Maria Rilke’s Herbsttag: Two Perspectives on the Place of Humanity in the Cosmic Cycle

Abstract

These two poems invite comparison by sharing a central conceit: the cycle of the seasons as a representation of the cosmic order. Odes 4.7 begins in springtime: winter has just ended and the cycle of renewal has begun; by contrast, “Herbsttag” begins just as summer has come to an end. The onset of autumn, for all its glories, foretokens in both poems the desolation of winter. They differ radically, however, in their depiction of humanity’s relationship to the seasons, and by extension to the cosmic cycle. At the very midpoint of Odes 4.7, the speaker reminds Torquatus that, in contrast to the ever-recurring seasons and phases of the moon, no renewal awaits us at the end of our lives. “Herbsttag,” by contrast, never explicitly mentions renewal; spring makes no appearance in the poem: one is left to infer, from the other seasonal transitions, its eventual return. Finally, “Herbsttag” strikes, albeit obliquely, a somewhat more optimistic note than the ultimately fatalistic Odes 4.7.