ABSTRACT
Our interpretation of Rilke's early poetry as being fundamentally concerned with process raises the question of incompletion, of whether a preoccupation with 'becoming' precludes an achieved sense of 'being'. Does Rilke's 'pure' movement ('reine Bewegung') become 'purely' movement? Is his earliest poetry ultimately concerned with a journey rather than a destination, and does this emphasis on the process prejudice the product?
