Rainer Maria Rilke
Rainer Maria Rilke (1875-1926) was a lyrical poet from Austria-Hungary, writing in German and French, and internationally famous for the Duino Elegies and The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge among other works. He wrote both verse and highly lyrical prose, and critics have several times described his work as "mystical".
Example of a poem: The Panther
The Panther
His vision, from the constantly passing bars,
has grown so weary that it cannot hold
anything else. It seems to him there are
a thousand bars; and behind the bars, no world.
As he paces in cramped circles, over and over,
the movement of his powerful soft strides
is like a ritual dance around a center
in which a mighty will stands paralyzed.
Only at times, the curtain of the pupils
lifts, quietly--. An image enters in,
rushes down through the tensed, arrested muscles,
plunges into the heart and is gone.
--Rainer Maria Rilke, translated by Stephen Mitchell