Because of the profound impact that the war had on him, Rilke expressed a hope in a 1919 letter that the task of the intellectual in a post-war world would be to render the world right. It would be "to prepare in men's hearts the way for those gentle, mysterious, trembling transformations from which alone the understandings and harmonies of a serener future will proceed".[1]:p.165 Rilke envisioned his Duino Elegies and the Sonnets to Orpheus as part of his contribution.[2]:p.14