Abstract: Rainer Maria Rilke's Duino Elegies has been long recognised as a profound philosophical poem, and scholars have made many comments on it. In Rilke's Duino Elegies (co-authored with Günter Stern), Hannah Arendt is mainly concerned about the issues related to religion and love. She argues that the essence of elegy is the religious residue and the expression of loss itself. Further more, Arendt focuses on how love not only serves as the human beings' authentic existence, but also displays abandonment and possibility of transcendence. An examination of Arendt's thought will disclose that she has pursued her own course in a unique manner. She highly praises the love view of Rilke, who treats love as sacralization of self as well as the principle of transcendence.

Key words: Hannah Arendt, Rainer Maria Rilke's Duino Elegies;, religion and love