false 46199 44 It would take a deeply cynical heart not to fall in love with Rainer Maria Rilke's <I>Letters to a Young Poet</I>. At the end of this millennium, his slender book holds everything a student of the century could want: the unedited thoughts of (arguably) the most important European poet of the modern age. Rilke wrote these 10 sweepingly emotional letters in 1903, addressing a former student of one of his own teachers. The recipient was wise enough to omit his own inquiries from the finished product, which means that we get a marvelously undiluted dose of Rilkean aesthetics and exhortation. <p> The poet prefaced each letter with an evocative notation of the city in which he wrote, including Paris, Rome, and the outskirts of Pisa. Yet he spends most of the time encouraging the student in his own work, delivering a sublime, one-on-one equivalent of the modern writing workshop: <blockquote> Go into yourself and test the deeps in which your life takes rise; at its source you will find the answer to the question whether you <I>must</I> create. Accept it, just as it sounds, without inquiring into it. Perhaps it will turn out that you are called to be an artist. Then take that destiny upon yourself and bear it, its burden and its greatness, without ever asking what recompense might come from outside. </blockquote> Every page is stamped with Rilke's characteristic grace, and the book is free of the breathless effect that occasionally mars his poetry. His ideas on gender and the role of the artist are also surprisingly prescient. And even his retrograde comment on the "beauty of the virgin" (which the poet derives from the fact that she "has not yet achieved anything") is counterbalanced by his perception that "the sexes are more related than we think." Those looking for an alluring image of the solitary artist--and for an astonishing quotient of wisdom--will find both in <I>Letters to a Young Poet</I>. <I>--Jennifer Buckendorff</I> 1208289 1924 Letters to a Young Poet total:4072|5:2164|4:1269|3:511|2:104|1:24| 4072 17661 5647 437 5 3 false false Wed Jun 01 00:00:00 -0700 2005 Thu Sep 04 09:44:07 -0700 2008 Fri Sep 05 08:18:16 -0700 2008 more...]]> 5 4 false false Sat May 10 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Thu May 15 09:42:00 -0700 2008 Thu May 15 09:58:14 -0700 2008 more...]]> 5 4 false false Sun Mar 09 15:46:05 -0700 2008 Sun Mar 09 16:46:44 -0700 2008 die.

This is a collection of Rilke's letters/life lessons to a very young poet who worked up the courage to send him a few samples. The letters are profoundly wise, sincere and loving.

If you are a young poet, you ...more...]]> 5 2 false false Tue Sep 09 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Wed Aug 06 18:03:05 -0700 2008 Fri Sep 19 18:39:26 -0700 2008 1 more...]]> 4 1 false false Fri Sep 11 19:56:14 -0700 2009 Fri Sep 11 20:15:45 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 1 true false Fri Feb 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Fri Feb 15 21:12:56 -0800 2008 Tue Feb 26 11:53:42 -0800 2008 briefly about ...more...]]> 5 2 true false Sat Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 1994 Wed Sep 05 22:36:39 -0700 2007 Wed Sep 05 22:42:56 -0700 2007 Beauty and the Beast, Love and Hope. It goes: "How should we be able to forget those ancient myths, those myths about dragons that at thelast moment turn into princesses. Perhaps all the dragons of our lives are pr...more...]]> 5 1 false false Fri May 11 16:12:12 -0700 2007 Sat May 12 21:49:55 -0700 2007 more...]]> 4 1 false false Tue Apr 08 05:56:12 -0700 2008 Mon Oct 15 17:22:17 -0700 2007 Mon Oct 15 17:22:17 -0700 2007 more...]]> 5 1 false false Mon Aug 04 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Wed Jul 30 10:01:59 -0700 2008 Mon Aug 04 21:38:21 -0700 2008 more...]]> 5 1 false false Mon Mar 24 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Mon Mar 24 09:11:24 -0700 2008 Mon Mar 31 15:48:07 -0700 2008 more...]]> 4 1 true false Tue May 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Mon May 28 18:29:42 -0700 2007 Tue May 29 15:46:07 -0700 2007 more...]]> 1 0 false false Sun Jun 07 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Fri Jun 05 10:36:24 -0700 2009 Sun Jun 07 17:51:32 -0700 2009 Letters to a Young Poet is one of those books that is so bad that I have to take notes while reading it to keep track of all the things I don't like about it.

This book is a collection of letters that the poet Rainer Maria Rilke wrote to a young man, between 1903 and 1908, who had asked R...more...]]> 5 0 false false Mon Feb 16 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Fri Feb 13 04:03:26 -0800 2009 Wed Feb 18 16:05:13 -0800 2009 more...]]> 5 0 false false Sun Jul 23 00:00:00 -0700 2006 Tue Jul 28 15:04:45 -0700 2009 Tue Aug 04 00:07:24 -0700 2009 more...]]> 5 0 false false Fri Sep 04 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Thu Sep 03 21:15:24 -0700 2009 Thu Sep 03 21:19:26 -0700 2009
"You are so young, so much before all beginning, and I would like to beg you, dear Sir, as well as I can, to have patience with everything unresolved in your heart and to try to love the questions themselves as if they were locked rooms or books written in a very foreign l...more...]]> 5 0 false false Tue May 26 20:31:40 -0700 2009 Sun Jun 07 17:47:22 -0700 2009 He has so many beautiful ideas. My first im...more...]]> 5 0 false false Sun Jun 07 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sun Jun 07 13:46:53 -0700 2009 Tue Jun 09 14:11:35 -0700 2009 more...]]> 5 0 false false Mon Oct 05 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Mon Sep 28 01:47:19 -0700 2009 Sun Oct 25 01:29:40 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Wed Nov 26 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Wed Oct 22 06:09:37 -0700 2008 Wed Nov 26 23:03:36 -0800 2008 more...]]>