John Armellino
ERH 203W 02
Major Knepper
Due 10/20/15
“What is The Machine?”
“The Machine” is a sonnet written by Rainer Maria Rilke in 1922. I must admit that the title of this poem has captured my childish, science-fiction loving attention. Before even reading it, I was thoroughly engrossed in thinking about what this “machine” could be. I immediately assumed it to be a sinister entity for some odd reason or another. It appears my initial assumption was correct. Rilke writes of a machine that “endangers all we have made.”[i] Clearly, this is not the typical sonnet about the horrors of romantic love, but rather a lovely, thought-provoking piece about our mysterious overlord, which you will see is an intricate metaphor for something else entirely. It is apparent in this sonnet that Rilke had adopted a rather bleak view of the world.
The metaphor that Rilke intends to make is that all of our lives are controlled by a mechanism that our society has created. This poem is part of series that Rilke wrote during the last two years of his life[ii], and I cannot help but feel that in his final days, the poet had at least partially succumbed to cynicism. Unlike most poets before and after him, Rilke does not humanize the inhuman. In “The Machine,” he automatizes the world, so that it itself is a machine.
We live in a world where nearly every aspect of our lives is affected by an unseen system, a system that feeds on conflict. It seems Rilke believed that this system is a danger to our lives, and our freedom. As a young boy, Rilke was nearly a victim of this system. His father was a former officer in the Austrian armed forces and wished for his son to be the same, so young Rilke was sent to a military school.[iii] Rilke however, was a born artist, and eventually made it to another school where he could begin his long and illustrious literary career.[iv] His parents were the extension of a machine that had a predetermined destiny all set for the young writer.
What is this “Machine” though? It is indifferent to creation and destruction. It performs both equally with vigor, and with a desire to keep us from escaping. Where does it think we would escape? And How? Rilke points to a “sacred dwelling that we do not own.”[v] He may be referring not to a physical place, but to a simpler lifestyle, one that is closer to nature. Perhaps Rilke believed this “Machine” was industry. After all, factories do create the weapons, armor, and tools of war. And, of course, war destroys all in its path. Without industry would our lives not become simpler, purer? The Machine (or those who propagate its existence) would want to prevent that, since we would no longer rely on its incessant production.
As long as people have existed, conflict between each other has existed as well. How would a lack of industry make anything better? Rilke was born during the industrial revolution,[vi] so it is a likely possibility that he saw the rapid expansion of industry as terrifying and unnatural. The world became impatient, as “the carver’s hands take too long to feel its way.”[vii] Instant gratification was becoming the norm as production of nearly everything increased on a massive scale. The skilled craftsman was becoming obsolete, and in his place is a dark machine, incomprehensible in its massiveness and hunger for our wealth. It steals the “mystery “[viii] of life. After all what do we need nature for if the Machine already provides us with all we need?
It makes sense that Rilke would write of industry as being the “Machine.” As I discussed earlier, young Rilke got his pinky caught in a cog of the machine before managing to pull free. Had he become an officer like his father wished, Rilke would have been sucked into the storm of World War I and who knows what would have become of the man? Perhaps thoughts like these passed through Rilke’s mind as he witnessed the war, which had forced him to flee his beloved home of Paris.[ix] The First Great War must have had a profound impact on the man. It was the first war that was industrialized on a massive scale, with people being fed into the machine as if human sacrifice itself had been mechanized.
This “Machine” has been a constant presence in human existence for the past few hundred years. It thrives on conflict. “It thinks it’s alive and does everything better.” It is always seeking greater efficiency, and often we need to institute laws to prevent industry from infringing on our basic human rights, the most important of which is the right to freedom from tyranny.
Rilke has experienced all the negative effects of the “Machine,” an entity that is indifferent to the suffering of people. It can be embodied by the rich who profit off of it, or by the poor who are strangled by it. But, no matter who you are, it seems Rilke believed that “The Machine” rules us all, with little chance for escape.
[i] Rainer Maria Rilke. “The Machine.” Sonnets to Orpheus
[ii] http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/rainer-maria-rilke
[iii] https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poet/rainer-maria-rilke
[iv] poetryfoundation.org
[v] “The Machine”
[vi] poetryfoundation.org
[vii] “The Machine”
[viii] “The Machine”
[ix] poets.org