It is explained during the introduction that the author was exceptionally close to the feminine and to the female mind and way of life. This occurred intentionally through his mother, who treated him very much "like a girl." Rather than there having been some "stigma" attached to this as may have been found in male culture once he reached adolescence, this "likeness to girls" was viewed very strictly as a good thing. For this reason readers may assume that Rilke has an affinity with the female mind and female behavioral practices that is higher than that of the average male person. The author often writes characters in the poems that have female perspectives and male perceptions of events in other characters. Suffice it say that "part of the psyche" of the poet Rilke is female, not the flesh but the mentality. Scientists today might have loved to run an EKG to see if the poet's brainwaves registered on normally female levels or not.