What are some of the techniques or processes that can be employed to Essay

What are some of the techniques or processes that can be employed to evaluate health policy as opposed to evaluating a specific health intervention - Essay Example Grossly, there are three types’ measures which are used for evaluation (Gilson et al, 1975). They include ‘measures of structure, measures of process and measure of outcomes’. Measures of structure and process evaluate the strategies behind the policy while the measures of outcome assess the effects of the policy on the affected population. Community participation in the evaluation of any health policy is of prime importance and deliberative approaches when used by the concerned authorities are successful in yielding information which leads to the development of effective and appropriate modifications in any health programme (Gregory et al, 2008). A specific health intervention which has definite end points like the success of Polio immunization can be simply evaluated by taking the total figures of immunization doses administered (process measure) and demonstrable data of less occurrence of Polio (outcome measure) (Gilson et al, 1975). On the other hand more comp licated policies like evaluating the outcome of preventive strategies for Alzheimer’s disease might need more through data collection, research and analysis. Evaluation of a health programme involves the general processes like audit and quality assurance to determine whether predetermined standards have been met (Bowling, 2002). It may be directly focussed on patients in relation to treatment and care, evaluation of specific biochemical indicators or on the measurement of broader quality of life of the patients. Outcome of medical interventions from social, psychological, physical and economic perspectives are measured (Bowling, 2002). Gregory J., Hartz-Karp J. & Watson R (2008) Using deliberative techniques to engage the community in policy development, Australia and New Zealand Health Policy 2008, 5:16, retrieved online September 17, 2009 from

The Speech of Frederick Douglass - Tandem to Leslie Harris Works Essay - 9

The Speech of Frederick Douglass - Tandem to Leslie Harris Works - Essay Example The author had been invited to make a speech regarding the meaning of the Fourth of July to the black population in America. The author is a male black American citizen. The first section of the speech praised what the founding fathers had done to the country. However, the second section of the speech was in tandem to the issues raised in chapter 6 and 7 in Leslie Harris’ In the Shadow of Slavery and the A People and Nation which focuses on slavery and a criticism of the stance of the American people regarding slavery. This essay will be focused on the speech of Frederick Douglass in comparison to Leslie Harri’s In the Shadow of Slavery and the A People and Nation. In their writings, the two black abolitionists bare almost similar arguments directed towards the perception and the overall negative consequences of slavery. Leslie Harris teaches history at Emory University and an author who writes based on her class experience and gathers enough evidence from newspapers, organizational records and other forms of literature. Leslie Harris gave detailed information about race and class in New York City. In the Shadow of Slavery has revealed more than two-century slavery in the city. She has touched on the real issues that affected African Americans who lived their lives in the shadow of slavery where most of them were enslaved. The black colour was seen as an inferior colour and the dark moments of the blacks could not be erased even after slavery ended. The author focusses on the actions of blacks in the New York City and devotes more than half of the book to the New York City’s slavery. She asserts that blacks played a major role in the development of the city and further gives details on how class and community arose between blacks and whites. She thoroughly tackles the era of slavery, developme nt of antislavery sentiment and movements and finally the era of abolitionism. Harris details the developing struggle against slavery, notes the importance of black labour and notes the white ambivalence about black freedom.  

Mali Empire and New World Encyclopedia Essay Example for Free

Mali Empire and New World Encyclopedia Essay Timbuktu was established by the Taureg, a nomadic group, in the tenth- eleventh century along the caravan routes that were along the west coast of Africa (New World Encyclopedia 2007). Timbuktu was in a good spot for trade but not for defending against attacks, and Timbuktu was constantly attacked by Taureg raiders (New World Encyclopedia 2007). Timbuktu was never able to grow due to the raids, but Gao, Timbuktu’s neighboring city grew to be the political capital (New World Encyclopedia 2007). As Timbuktu developed and became a city that traded gold, ivory, slaves, and salt Timbuktu became immensely wealthy (New World Encyclopedia 2007). Since Timbuktu was so wealthy it was a target for many European empires seeking wealth (New World Encyclopedia 2007). It started to decline in the 16th century by the Portuguese traders choosing to send the goods upriver instead of down river (New World Encyclopedia 2007). As Timbuktu developed into a more intellectual center in the early 15th century it became known for its religious study of Islam (New World Encyclopedia 2007). While Islam was the main religion of Timbuktu, most of the rural population were non-Muslim traditionalists (New World Encyclopedia 2007). The University of Sankore, also known as the most prominent Islamic institution, was established in 1581 C. E. and taught mostly centered around the Qur’an (New World Encyclopedia 2007). In Timbuktu there were more than 120 library’s in which housed millions of books, and some of which have not been found yet (New World Encyclopedia 2007). As stories of Timbuktu’s wealth reached Europe many explorers journeyed downward into Africa to have their own taste of the wealth (Timbuktu: The El Dorado of Africa 2013). As countless European explorers journeyed to Timbuktu and never returned The Geographic Society of Paris offered a reward to whatever explorer that could make it there and 2 back and live to tell the tale (Timbuktu: The El Dorado of Africa 2013). The first explorer to reach Timbuktu was Gordon Laing in 1826, but he didn’t make it back alive (Timbuktu: The El Dorado of Africa 2013). The first explorer to reach Timbuktu was Rene-Auguste Caillie in 1828, by disguising himself as an Arab traveling in a caravan (Timbuktu: The El Dorado of Africa 2013). When Rene returned to Europe he wrote three volumes over how unimpressed he was about the city in that it being a mud-walled city, in the middle of the desert, and not having any gold (Timbuktu: The El Dorado of Africa 2013). Although in 1512 when Timbuktu was at its peak and Leo Africanus visited he stated: The rich king of Tombuto hath many plates and sceptres of gold, some whereof weigh 1300 pounds He hath always 3000 horsemen (and) a great store of doctors, judges, priests, and other learned men, that are bountifully maintained at the kings expense. (New World Encyclopedia 2007) Although from Shabeni’s point of view of Timbuktu in 1787 he stated: On the east side of the city of Timbuctoo, there is a large forest, in which are a great many elephants. The timber here is very large. The trees on the outside of the forest are remarkable they are of such a size that the largest cannot be girded by two men. They bear a kind of berry about the size of a walnut, in clusters consisting of from ten to twenty berries. Shabeeny cannot say what is the extent of this forest, but it is very large. (New World Encyclopedia 2007) In 1591 Timbuktu started to slowly decline due to the Morisco mercenaries armed with guns (New World Encyclopedia 2007). One of the few reasons Timbuktu is still in existence is 3 because it is a major tourist attraction that attracts people from all over the world to see the mystical city (New World Encyclopedia 2007). 4 Alistair Boddy-Evans (2013). Timbuktu: The El Dorado of Africa. [ONLINE] Available at: http://africanhistory. about. com/od/mali/p/Timbuktu. htm. [Last Accessed September 10 2013]. unknown (2007). Timbuktu. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www. newworldencyclopedia. org/entry/Timbuktu. [Last Accessed September 10 2013]. unknown (2013). Sankore Madrasah. [ONLINE] Available at: http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Sankore_Madrasah. [Last Accessed Sepember 10 2013].

Operations Analysis: Starbucks

Operations Analysis: Starbucks Starbucks main focus has been on its employees. Starbucks understands that their employees are the driving factor and most important resource of the company. Starbucks provides each employee with a starting wage above minimum wage standards as well as a quality health care and benefits packages. They firmly believe that the welfare of their people, environment and community are linked to their success as a company. These principles provide an established and proven work environment for every staff member throughout every retail store owned or operated by Starbucks. PERFORMANCE OBJECTIVES Speed Starbucks is all about customer experience and the key aspect to that is not keep a customer waiting. Speed is an essential aspect, for the business, because the speed of their processes affects them in many ways. The profitability is affected when the staff keeps the customers waiting and this could cost them dearly, besides, with regard to the product, by being slow the quality of the food and beverage also suffers. One way of reducing time is to have efficient and smooth internal communications, and by keeping an adequate quantity of inventory, especially a well organized kitchen or working space. Quality Quality is probably the main performance objective as it is usually the one factor that differentiates it from its competitors. As mentioned above, as part of the customer experience, quality plays a main role. Quality encompasses a lot factors and a large portion of that depends on the customer perception of it. Quality is primarily affected by the quality of the resources, the time management etc. Starbucks could adopt a TQM approach and even have quality checks. They could take back feedback from customers from time to time to review their performance. Dependability Starbucks needs to be consistent in its performance, and the quality of service or product provided. One way to measure dependability of products is for example a business may look into the records of the amount of warranty claims made against a particular product. Flexibility Speed and Flexibility are related, the faster the processing time the better the chances of processes being adjusted quickly. Flexibility also involves a degree of being up to date and to accommodate the customer needs from time to time. Starbucks RD department would have to identify flavors and new mechanisms that could attract new customers and benefit the company. It also involves understanding the economy they work in, like creating a customized menu for the countries they serve in. Cost Cost affects a large chunk of how the company works, because no matter which company it is they all have a profit maximization objective. Major costs for Starbucks include the acquiring of coffee beans and Starbucks is very specific about the Arabica beans they procure, an example of minimizing cost would be how they have started growing their own coffee beans, which has given them better control over their costs by reducing supplier costs. Another method to do so is to update technology that better uses input and reduces waste. Of the 4 strategic perspectives, Resources applies best to Starbucks Financial resources affect Cost and Quality performance objectives. If quality is high, costs are usually high. However, Starbucks finds the balance between cost quality and provides a good quality product service at minimum cost. Physical resources refer usually to the area where business is carried out and affects the Speed element of the performance objectives. Starbucks all around the world have similar outlet design where to get to the counter; customers have to first pass through the seating area. It would be faster and probably more convenient to customers to have the counter closer to the entrance. Human resources include the knowledge and experience of employees/owner and affect the Dependability variable of the performance objectives. There is a requirement for all Starbucks employees to learn how to make the various drinks and also how to interact with customers. The way Starbucks employees interact with customers is very different from other of their outlets. Also, a drink made in one outlet sometimes doesnt differ at all from the same drink made in others. There lies a very high degree of consistency in the product and service of Starbucks. Technological resources affect the Quality, Speed and Cost variables of performance objectives. With better technology, costs can be reduced, speed may be increased and quality can be consistent. SUPPLY NETWORK The major aspect of Starbucks supply chain is the supply and distribution of the coffee beans. This is a complex process as the coffee and other related products need to be obtained from around the world to be delivered at their retail outlets. Starbucks follow the rule of Plan, Source, Make and Deliver for their supply chain. Their operations begin right from the planting of the coffee to brewing the perfect cup of coffee for their customers. Starbucks supply chain includes everything from planning the raw materials, to the manufacturing of the coffee and last but not the least distribution of this coffee to their retail outlets, and they successfully do this by positioning its own people inside of distribution centers, to keep watch over operations and forge stronger relationships with service providers. (Refer to Appendix 1) CUSTOMER ORDER PROCESS Store Entrance Cashier I Cashier II Payment Specialty Drink NO YES Pickup Counter Cashier Calls Order to the Barista Barista Repeats the order and prepares Products Eg. Coffee Bean Select and purchase supplies, hire and training Seen by Customer Not Seen by Customer Fig: Paryani, K. (2013) Product quality, service reliability and management of operations at Starbucks.International Journal of Engineering, Science and Technology, 3 (7), p.3-14. Available at: http://www.ijest-ng.com/vol3_no7/ijest-ng-vol3-no7-pp1-14.pdf [Accessed: 13 Mar 2013]. (Refer to Appendix 3 4) ORDER PROCESS MAPPING This order process mapping has been divided into three main portions, the customers viewpoint, the cashiers viewpoint and finally the baristas view point. From the customers viewpoint, the order process begins when the customer enters the store and begins to make an order. At this point depending on the speed of the order process, the customer could either wait at the queue or leave it he/she feels like it is time consuming. On reaching the cashier, the customer reads and chooses from the menu available and places an order to the cashier. The cashier then informs the customer about the specialties offered, like a caramel or chocolate topping etc. This is the decision point for both the cashier as well as the customer and the customer could alter the order further. After this point, the customer pays for the drink and proceeds to either in store or maybe wait at the special stools near the checkout counter to the collect the drink and proceed to leave. Next from the cashiers perspecti ve, the process begins with the opening of the store, and it is the responsibility of the cashier to ensure that they have necessary cash to make transactions, by ensuring that they have coins and other cash/notes. The actual order happens, when the customer chooses the drink or food places the order. The cashier then mentions the various options available like choosing a topping or cream etc. The cashier after confirming the order with the customer, then immediately calls out the order to the barista. After this, the cashier tells the customer the amount to be paid and collects the amount, along with a receipt for the order, and tells the customer the approximate time that will be taken for the drink to be prepared. The final approach is that of the barista. When the order is placed by the customer, the cashier calls out the order to the barista. The Barista then follows this up by calling out the order loudly once more. This is the poke-a-yoke approach, as a method of double check ing and ensuring that the right order is placed. After this, the barista proceeds to make the actual drink. At this point it can take two deviations, there could be a fail point and the barista may not make the drink properly, in which case the drink will be made again and the barista completes the drink and places it on the checkout counter or gives in to the customer in his/her seating area. The red arrows signify an interaction between the customer and the staff and how the viewpoint is different in both their terms. The green arrow is the cashier calling out the order to the barista. Fig: Perkins Will. (2012). Research journal. The Impact of an Operational Process on Space. VOL 04.02 (1), p43-44. TRANSFORMATION PROCESS MODEL Inputs Outputs Transformation Process Coffee beans Baristas and other staff Coffee Machine, condiment counter, food freezers and other equipment Coffee Customer Satisfaction Experience Preparation of Coffee Warming of Food Fig : Simple Transformation Model adapted from Shaw, N, 2010, Operating Systems, Performance Objectives and Operations Strategy, Operations Management 1, Heriot Watt University, Edinburgh (Refer Appendix 2. ) The transformation process model shown below gives us an insight to the detailed version of the order process of Starbucks. It starts with the environment, which includes the customers of the coffee shop. The transformation process model is constructed keeping in mind the Starbucks customer experience that ensures when a customer leaves the coffee shop they have a smile on their face. Like the traditional transformational process this model also depicts the inputs, the transformation system and the outputs. This model creates a linkage between monitoring and control and the transformation system, which helps in enhancing customer experience and the environment in the shop. Environment Customers Inputs Customer Order Coffee Beans Staff Equipment including coffee machines and so on. Transformation System Preparation of coffee Food warming Output Prepared Coffee Starbucks Experience Monitoring and Control Fig: Detailed Tranformation process of the order process adapted from Operations management: The input/output transformation model. 2013. Operations management: The input/output transformation model. [ONLINE] Available at: http://cnx.org/content/m35439/latest/. [Accessed 13 March 2013]. PROBLEMS FACED Some of the primary problems faced by the company in terms of its operations and performance are as follows. Inadequate seating capacity and power sources. The cleanliness at the condiment counter is another issue. No new beverages options or menu and that not all beverages are available at different stores across the globe. Inconsistency in customer service and inventory. The Wi-Fi ports arent available at all stores. RECOMMENDATIONS A) Increase seating capacity: Starbucks can increase their seating capacity by having a outdoor seating area. They could also use comfortable, space friendly couches and bean bags that can be moved around easily to suit the customers comfort. By increasing the seating capacity of the store, more customers will prefer to dine in-store and this would mean that the order process will be serving a larger number of people at the given time. Staff would have to be on hand at all times. B) Cleanliness of the counters and the coffee desks: Starbucks has a separate condiment counter which hold additional sugar sachets, stirrers, mug holders, tissue napkins etc. Though the staff provides these along with the coffee order, customers can access this if they need any additional. A recommendation that we would suggest is to develop a good roster system that will ensure that staff take turns in keeping an eye on the coffee desks. This is essential to the order process, affecting the level of customer service and satisfaction. This could contribute effectively to improving both the speed and customer satisfaction of the order process, because this is a vital part of the process. C) Customized orders: Though Starbucks boasts of customizing their beverages on the request of the customers, like providing variety in their milk full cream, low fat, skimmed milk, soya milk etc. It was identified that most of the time, the store is out of inventory for the required order and this is a major weakness. This affects the order process, because it confuses the customer and the barista. This will have a direct impact on the order process such that, the staff taking the order will have to be specific in terms of mentioning their specialties available. The customer must be made aware of the choices available, and they should have the respective ingredients available for these options. D) Stores have Wi-Fi ports. Starbucks, like its competitors, provided the policy of free Wi-Fi ports in the store. However, not all stores are consistent in this aspect and many stores dont offer this facility. This will affect the order process, as customer like youngster and business people might actually leave the store due to this reason. E) Switch menu. Customers often feel like the Starbucks menu doesnt switch around much and also that they dont have all their options available in all store. We would advice Starbucks to incorporate the feedbacks from their customers into their menu and this again would directly affect the order process. CONCLUSION This report has effectively analyzed the operations of the Starbucks chain of coffee shops. The study looked into understanding the performance objectives by aligning them to the strategic objectives of the company. Furthermore, we have identified the suitable transformational model of the company and then explained in detail the order process. We chose the order process as the main focus of this paper, because we felt this was one the main operations of the company. We have identified how the order process functions and have also mapped out the entire process from the view point of the customer and the company. Finally, we have identified some functional problems and weaknesses of their operations. One the basis of site study as well as adequate research through company profiles and journals, they study has looked into amending some of these issues. The report has explained our recommendations towards addressing these issues and henceforth makes the operations of the store more bene ficial and profitable to both the company and customers. APPENDIX 1. They set a direction based on three broad action areas: service, cost, and talent. We make 80,000 deliveries per week globally and the store managers and baristas rely on us doing this well for them to be successful. Replenishment to our stores was not setting our stores up for success. We talked to store managers and they were clear that they could not be successful if the reliability and quality of supply was not good enough. 2. The basic model of transformation process indicates the inputs and outputs required by the firm. One of the main procedures of Starbucks is the order process that includes different inputs that are essential for the coffee shop. The inputs being, coffee beans, barista and other staff, the coffee machine, condiment, food freezer and other equipments. The outputs result in the hot and warm coffee and the customer satisfaction and experience. The process that led to the outputs includes the production of coffee and warming the food. 3. Starbucks utilizes an Assemble to Order process (ATO) when dealing with customers. ATO is a mixture of make to order and make to stock. Since customers like to personalize their order, Starbucks has an inventory in every branch to reach customers needs. The product is made when a customer puts in their order yet all the materials are kept at hand for workers to make each order accordingly. Also, they keep certain things made at all times on hand like caffeinated and decaffeinated coffee because its a common order thats expected to sell and can be customized for the specific customer such as adding sugar or milk if theyd like to. (Team 1 Starbucks, 2010) 4. A typical service blueprint of the order process at Starbucks is shown Below. To start the order process, the barista behind the cash register gives friendly service by looking the customer in the eye and then greeting the customer. The customer gives the order. If the order is for an espresso drink, the barista repeats the order, out loud, and states the ingredients in a predefined order (size, type of milk, type of coffee, etc.). The barista behind the espresso bar repeats the drink ingredients in the same order. This simple poka-yoke technique helps to guarantee that the drink will be made correctly the first time. This process is generally observed at in most Starbucks stores, where the barista asks for the customers name and repeats it with the drink order. In the early days, the baristas were trained to ask the customers name. Howard Schultz has brought this step back as another way to differentiate Starbucks from the other coffee shops; this act, in turn, has had a positive impact on improving market share. (Paryani, 2011) Names of team Members Team work (management/co ntribution /attendance of team meetings) Research (contribution to data collection / group discussions /idea generation /literature review) Final Report (report construction /report write up/diagrams/ referencing, etc.) Total contribution towards assignment Athina Abigail Dsilva 1 2 2 5 Callahan Jason Brown 2 1 2 5 Leni Vincent Joseph 2 1 2 5 Nida Saleem Siddiqui 2 2 1 5 Rudy Rosario 2 2 1 5 Vidhya Subramani 1 2 2 5 Total score 10 10 10 30

Identifying with the Waste Land Essay -- Literary Analysis

T.S Eliot’s The Waste Land frustrates the reader with a complexity so dense that he or she feels lost. This frustration arises out of the poem’s fragmented structure of the characters, place, and time which gives the reader an insight into the civilization following World War I and the authors’ chaotic state of mind. He shows how modern life appears to be fragmented and disordered through the shifting images, points of view and alternating periods of time. T.S Eliot uses allusions to myths, history, and literature to lead us out of the confining present moment and ego to transcend into a self that is free and in harmony with others and nature. T.S Eliot suggests myths throughout The Waste Land to let the reader indirectly recognize the viewpoint from outside of time and eventually find a way out that will lead to happiness. The author uses myths such as the Fisher King and the Grail Quest to associate the impulse to search, discover, and seek change for the sake of self-knowledge. Fisher King focuses on the ancient fertility rituals. After the King was wounded, it was believed that he was responsible for his land to become â€Å"a wasteland†. As the legend says, if the King is healed, the land will flourish. In other words, the fertility of the land depends on the potency and virility of the King and can only be restored through sacrifice. Likewise, Eliot incorporates the Grail Quest to reinstate how a quest throughout the deserted land serves as purification. Perhaps the author uses these myths to portray how distorted and corrupted modern society is. He is relating these legends to the emptiness in modern culture to let the reader discover the true meaning of life. â€Å"Eliot points out the simple fact of this cultural emptiness and i... ...ciety is corrupted, and the only way to revitalize is to become one with the world, and the self. The only way to restore order to the self and the world is to be reborn to our spirit. Finally, The Waste Land is a mirror image of the breakdown of a historical, social, and cultural order constantly depicted with violent scenes and death. Eliot expects the reader to participate in a quest of discovery through his myths, history and literature to allow us to escape the imprisoning present and ego to reveal meaning, truth, and virtue. Works Cited †¢ (1) Free Waste Land Essays: Underlying Myths in The Waste Land." 123HelpMe.com.05Dec2010 †¢ (2) "SparkNotes: Eliotà ¢s Poetry: Themes, Motifs & Symbols." SparkNotes: Today's Most Popular Study Guides. Web. 05 Dec. 2010. .

Computer-Based Training :: Business Essays

Computer-Based Training Computer-based training can be found in almost all segments of business and education today. "Virtually every major corporation has turned to computer-based training for teaching employees everything from company regulations, to compliance, to factory operations (Rothfeder 1998) Candice Harp (1998) adds that "Corporate spending for training has risen to over $40 billion each year and a recent survey of Fortune 500 companies found that in some industries, companies dedicate as much as 5 percent of their information system budgets to training" (Harp, Taylor et al. 1998) For one thing, the economics make sense. "Employees can be trained at their desktops no matter where they're based, without incurring travel, hotel and meal costs, and there’s no lost productivity from the time spent traveling" (Rothfeder 1998) But exactly what is computer-based training and what are the various forms it takes? Background In general, computer-based training consists primarily of occupational training for adults, as opposed to computer-aided instruction used mainly in educational settings with younger populations. Training refers to any means of delivering information to people so they can do their jobs better. Computer-based training is delivered using computer tutorials in place of live instructors in a classroom format or video taped instruction. Computer-based training is usually interactive, self-paced, learner-directed, and offers immediate feedback to learners. The various forms of computer-based training currently available include interactive CD-ROM tutorials, multimedia simulations, and most recently, internet and intranet-based programs. Some of the numerous examples where computer-based training has been successfully implemented include instruction for bankers regarding corporate policies, Marine Corps fire teams, airline baggage handlers, MBA’s learning economics, and hostage rescue situations. One of the more sophisticated programs even simulates business war games where profits and losses vary based on management-trainee decisions. Advantages "Adult learning theory postulates that adult learners prefer a high degree of learner control. Computer-based training provides more learner control than other forms of training because it allows the learner to select the appropriate time to engage in learning and which topics will be covered" (Harp, Taylor et al. 1998) Another factor in adult learning theory suggests that adults are motivated by relevance of information to their current needs. With computer-based training, "on-demand training is possible for such instances as mechanics using animated, multimedia reference manuals to learn how to correctly install a new part in a car (Bowman, Grupe et al. 1995) Since most of computer-based training is aimed at adult populations, this advantage is a key factor to its popularity.

Rainer Maria Rilke Essay

Rainer Maria Rilke was born in Prague in 1875, a city with a German-speaking element. He attended the University of Prague and Linz, and soon set out on his unsettled life of wandering among friends and countries. In 1899 and 1900 he went to Russia with Lou Andreas-Salome and her professor husband, where he met tolstory and the painter Pasternak (father of the poet Boris). He was fascinated by Russian Orthodox mysticism and the solitary life of the monks. Russia was the foundation of his ways of absorbing the world; he was to say at the end of his life. He took trips to North Africa, Sweden, and Denmark, and in 1901 married to Clara Westhoff, a German, and had a daughter Ruth by her. After a year he left them, though he and Clara remained close friends. In 1902 Rilke went to Paris, where he lived off and on for the next twelve years, part of which time he was the sculptor Rodin’s private secretary. The first of his Duino Elegies were written in 1912 at Duino, Italy, in a castle which looked onto the Adriatic. Then, following a period of creative frustration, in 1921 he settled in Chateau de Muzot, in Switzerland, a small, uncomfortable, thirteenth-century stone house, with a bedroom and one tall room, where he remained the rest of his life. There, in the month of February 1922, he completed the Duino Elegies, the fifty-five poems in Sonnets to Orpheus, and a miscellany of other poems. After 1924 he was sick and by November 1926 he was at the Valmont Sanatorium. That month he published Vergers, a collection of his French poems. After pricking his finger on a rose thorn and suffering pain from severe blood poisoning, he died of leukemia at Valmont on December 29, 1926. By the time he wrote Sonnets to Orpheus, Rainer Maria Rilke was at once the most classically informed and innovatively modern writer of his generation (Rilke 1972). Unembarrassed by precursors, using them to his advantage, he stood apart from his immediate experimental contemporaries and created a modernism at once unique, cyclical, and enduring. Rilke’s Sonnets to Orpheus, prompted by the death of a young woman, Vera Oukama Koop, is an occasion of perfectly crafted poems, which Rilke shaped and misshaped in every possible way to suit the few days of their compelling creation. The blind angel entered him and spoke his message, and Rilke completed the first book in about three days. He returned to the Duino Elegies, and then turned back to the sonnets and completed the second book, also in a few days. So this most interior, metaphysical, secular-religious poet of the century yielded. In the poems he moves away from what might be an ordinary life of friends, lovers, and artists to one of remembrances: a dog’s imploring face, a free-flying kite, a young childhood cousin who will die, a teenage Dutch dancer, Vera Ouckama Koop, who dies in her eighteenth year and to whom his volume is dedicated. He also contemplates the indifferent modern machine that threatens the soul, contrasted with a virgin and her white unicorn that he discovers on a medieval textile in the Musee de Cluny in Paris. Finally, he addresses the silent friend of many distances, who may be Koop or Rilke himself. In this last sonnet, affirming the risk of life and art that may lead to jubilance, Rilke tells the friend, lost in darkness, to let he go and ring out. In the sonnets, Rilke exchanges his outer and inner worlds with agility. While he may find an angel or two or Orpheus’s resounding tunes inhabiting his realms, no salvific god shows up to comfort or make promises. The poet resides in loneliness, homelessness, silence, and change, his conditions for touching the sky and the fields and hearing all that is elsewhere and around him. Rilke had many friends, but he was always a guest, an uprooted monk of art, and his most accomplished work was completed in a month of 1922 in that tiny dingy castle where he sentenced himself to solitary confinement. Orpheus is a calendar of search, remembrance, and acceptance of Orpheus, the art-god of descent and resurrection, who is everywhere. Rilke succeeds in turning grief into pathos and ultimately into an ecstasy of absence and presence. Following a familiar pattern of his relations with women, Rilke moves from desire, to its frustration and negation, to the transformation into art. It is not different, emotionally and artistically from the pattern of the mystical poets as in St. John of the Cross, where the speaker moves from the burning senses, to the dark night of their negation, and to light and union which in the instance of both Rilke and the Spanish mystic is the evidence of the poem. Rilke’s Interpretation of the Greek Myth Orpheus There are three moments of the myth of Orpheus as related and commented by Rilke, first, the creation of a world through language, second, the turn which Orpheus makes at the threshold of Hades, and third, the death of Orpheus. In Rilke’s Sonnets to Orpheus, the poet-figure Orpheus, whom we know from Greek legend and Medieval Latin folklore, is the symbol for a poetical synthesis that joins all things in harmony and joins what appears and what by its very nature does not, Orpheus is thought to keep open what Rilke will call a dual realm between the actual and the potential that lies beyond it. The poet-figure to whom Rilke’s sonnets are addressed, of course, is the Greek poet Orpheus, who according to legend, sang so divinely that all of nature hearkened to his call, Orpheus was thus able to charm the god Hades and bring back his dead wife, Eurydice, from the underworld, holding open what Rilke calls the pure relation between the here and the beyond. And so the Sonnets to Orpheus series is about the access of poetic language to appearance and to what transcends it. Rilke’s language itself, through its elusive but also vertiginously concrete references, realizes a world that encompasses the actual and the unseen, the special transcendence (1972:189-192) of potentiality. This is why Rilke’s poetry emphasizes the other side of even ordinary things and other side not exhausted by the actuality that foreshadows it. The inspiration for Rilke’s Sonnets is twofold. First of all, it is grateful to the Orpheus legend an illustration of which hung in the Chateau de Muzot, where Rilke was staying in February 1922 when the series was written. Equally importantly, it was occasioned by the untimely death in youth of Vera Duckama Knoop( a daughter of a friend of Rilke’s), to whom the sonnests are dedicated. (1958: 185). One can infer then that Rilke takes the task upon himself, as Orpheus did for Eurydice, of establishing a relation to the mysteriousness of the other side, which Rilke claims, in a letter about the Sonnets, the dead girl symbolizes. In a commentary Rilke writes that the Sonnets are placed under the name and protection of the dead girl whose incompletion and innocence holds open the door of the grave, so that she, gone from us, belongs to those powers who keep the half of life fresh and open towards the other wound-open half(1972: 136). Rilke is fascinated by the legendary poet, who is said to have sung so beautifully that all beings, even gods, were enchanted by his song, but it is primarily the invisible potential horizon of things that Rilke’s own poetry, by invoking Orpheus, aims to bring into poetical intimacy. Through this horizontality, Rilke finds an access to what he often refers to as the essence of things. The girl is a symbol of that horizonality, a symbol of incompleteness itself: as a young girl, she was half yet to be. Her death transports her to the other side of life which illuminates life’s own incompleteness. In the Duino Elegies,(1994: 154 ),the second part of which was finished during the same profile month of February 1922, the figure of the angel which Rilke takes pains to distinguish from the Christian symbolism of the same serve unification of distinct realms. The Orpheus myth for both Rilke and his predecessor Ovid concerns the relation between this known side of life and the mysterious beyond. Orpheus is the one who has lifted the lyre among shadows, who has entered the underworld, and so the one to whom is allowed the infinite praise of poeticizing. It is because the figure of Orpheus, like the dead girl, is characterized by transcendence that he serves Rilke well here. Rilke devices in his invocation of Orpheus, a decidedly modern poetical access to the transcendent by presenting in condensed and abbreviated form, a lyrical total without translating that total into logical or even associative statements. From the first sonnet of the series, Orpheus and his song are associated by Rilke with pure transcendence. Orpheus who sang so sublimely that he was said to have become a god, transcended the ordinary relation that language gives us to things, a relation which Rilke conceives as relying upon opposites, the cleavage between being and non-being. Rilke’s reference to Orpheus is marked by a repetition of German verbs that indicate a crossing of such boundaries. His word transcends( ubertrifft) the being-here ( das Hiersein), because it overstep ontological boundaries even as he obeys them and so Orpheus enters into relation with the mystery of things and their transience. Their transience renders them intimate with our own and so we must according to Rilke resist the will to run down and degrade everything earthly, just because of its temporariness which it shares with us. Things too belong to the dual realm to which Rilke’s sonnet series repeatedly refers. This is suggested in these lines from Rilke’s Sonnet on the relationship of poetic song and the nature. Conclusion While Rainer Maria Rilke’s relation to empiricist psychology is marginal at best, his relatively unreflecting use of its imagery allows us to estimate with some accuracy the extent to which the movement had entered the general consciousness of an entire period from the 1890s on. For many readers and writers, the dispersed and fragmented subject was doubtless little more than a fashion, just as many saw impressionist painting more as a technique than as the outgrowth of a philosophy. Rilke seems to have used empiricist vocabulary and turns of thought somewhat eclectically throughout his career, he was an excellent indicator of what was generally in the air and had an exceptionally creative way of integrating it into his own original and powerfully imagined poetic universe. Influence studies of the conventional type cannot do justice to the kind of problem he poses. Throughout his life, as an almost daily custom, Rilke wrote letters of such exceptional grace and expressive force that they have come to represent a significant part of his artistic legacy. He also preserved conscientiously letters written to him by others. Family members, friends, and more incidental acquaintances collected his letters as precious gifts, in keeping with old European traditions. After his return from Paris to Muzot, Rilke set down his last will and testament in which he authorized his heirs to publish his correspondence. He realized how much of his creative energies had flowed into the letters. He had spent days and weeks just answering the growing number of questions on his work and way of life and thinking about concerns with which others had approached him. In its totality, Rilke’s work reflects his personal life and disposition, as well as, and perhaps even more so, the curiously pessimistic historical climate that became obvious at the turn of the century. He felt and recorded the insidious doubt in the strength or adequacy of a modern rationalistic society. He was extraordinarily sensitive to the deeply disturbing signs of this cultural unrest and without any sustained interest in theoretical discourse, learned to draw conclusions from the work of contemporary artists. Rainer Maria Rilke is a master at lining, and his use of contemporary meters, rhythm, and diction makes his translations more readable to a contemporary audience without losing the mysticism and lyrical quality of Rilke’s poems.