The author traces the lifelong unresolved psychic conflicts which are represented and mobilized in Rilke's poetry. Wishes for oral independence are prominent among the motifs, as are envy of pregnancy and birth (in the myths of the artist-god, the hermaphrodite, and the innocent virgin). The author's interpretive attempt is interlaced with remarks on the contribution of psychoanalytic id and ego psychology to the understanding of aesthetic products. He refers especially to the role of the body schema in certain productions by Rilke and by others.