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Letters to a Young Poet
In 1903, Rilke replied in a series of 10 letters to a student who had submitted some verses to the well-known Austrian poet for an assessment. Written during an important stage in Rilke's artistic development, these letters contain many of the themes that later appeared in his best works. Essential reading for scholars, poetry lovers.
Paperback, 80 pages
Published
May 8th 2002
by Dover Publications
(first published 1929)
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Evan
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Shelves:
poetry,
essay,
__in-my-collection,
my-faves,
2010-reads,
philosophy,
epistle-larry-approves
Sigh. Rilke answers nothing and answers everything.
He talks of our ancestors as being "murmuring blood." This book, containing the voice of his wisdom across the age, is blood that courses through us and speaks.
It offers comfort to me in the face of life's challenges, its unrequited longings. It helps me see the value of difficulties and the importance of patience.
I wish I'd read this many years ago. I think it would have given me guidance I ne...more
In which Rainer Maria Rilke, both mercilessly and mercifully, bashes me over the head with a baseball bat from the other side of the Great Whatever.
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"Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves… do not seek the answers which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them and the point is to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer."
I feel like this book has become a token gift for graduates, along with "Oh, the Places You'll Go!". But with good reas...more
I feel like this book has become a token gift for graduates, along with "Oh, the Places You'll Go!". But with good reas...more
I always underline in books, either for the wise quotes that teach or the pure beauty of the passage. About ten pages into this book, though, I gave up underlining as nearly every sentence was a combination of beauty and wisdom. These letters (to a young man he never even met!) are inspiring in their honesty, teaching to cherish your solitude, "to walk inside yourself and meet no one for hours... to be solitary as you were when you were a child, when the grownups walked around involved wi...more
I was first acquainted with this book through an excerpt I heard in the tape of 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 princesses,who are only waiting to see us once beautiful and brave. Perhaps everything terrble is, in its deepest being, something helpless that wants help from us. So you must not be frightened when ...more
This is so wonderful I just want to swallow its pages whole and 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 should find a nice couch on which to swoon while reading them.
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 should find a nice couch on which to swoon while reading them.
There are works that surface time and time again in cultural circles: film, literature, music, etc. One of these is Rainer Maria Rilke's Letters to a Young Poet. The young poet, Franz Xaver Kappus, is unremarkable in this set of letters as we never see the poems he sent to Rilke, nor do we see his end of the correspondence. Yet, what Kappus realizes, and so too the reader, is that his offerings are absolutely unnecessary because we see them through Rilke's eyes. Rilke readily assumes the mant...more
I have a nice 1950 hardback version given to me. I read and liked the goodread reviews. A few of my own favourite extracts:
"...read as few aesthetic-critical things as possible - they are either partisan opinion become hardened and meaningless in their lifeless petrification or else they are a skilful play upon words, in which one view is uppermost today and its opposite tomorrow." (Letter III)
"One must in general be so careful with names; it is so often th...more
"...read as few aesthetic-critical things as possible - they are either partisan opinion become hardened and meaningless in their lifeless petrification or else they are a skilful play upon words, in which one view is uppermost today and its opposite tomorrow." (Letter III)
"One must in general be so careful with names; it is so often th...more
The last book for the year. The soothing, gentle, unimposing yet wise voice of Rilke - what better way to fold up one more chapter in life and open another, with hope for more suffering and joys in apt measure. This little book has been my companion for four years now, always half-finished, and it feels strange to finally remove the bookmark and to keep it aside.
Read it with a forgiving bend. Keep in mind that Rilke never wrote them with an intention to publish, it was mostly an atte...more
Read it with a forgiving bend. Keep in mind that Rilke never wrote them with an intention to publish, it was mostly an atte...more
This book is my lifebuoy.
Rainer Maria Rilke's letters to Franz Kappus, an aspiring poet confined in a military academy, served as my motivation to writing and to moving forward in life.
His 7th letter made a great impact on my understanding about love and relationships. This is an excerpt:
It is also good to love: because love is difficult.
For one human being to love another human being: that is perhaps the most difficult task that has been entru...more
Rainer Maria Rilke's letters to Franz Kappus, an aspiring poet confined in a military academy, served as my motivation to writing and to moving forward in life.
His 7th letter made a great impact on my understanding about love and relationships. This is an excerpt:
It is also good to love: because love is difficult.
For one human being to love another human being: that is perhaps the most difficult task that has been entru...more
There are some books for which reviews are pointless. These books, instead of the reader selecting them from the shelf and listening to them as they unfold along their merry or unmerry way as they have before and always will, select the reader, at the right time, in the right place, like an old or a new friend who shows up just as the reader is on the verge of losing all hope and faith, pinned underneath the great questions of our times and battling their own monsters which threaten to swallow t...more
rainer maria rilke is a name i've been admiring for years without ever attempting to even pronounce it. "rainer maria rilke", i don't know why but all these letters placed together look perfect to me. a small poem in itself. as when neil wrote "two sun nine".
briefly about the letters:
something i wish i had read when i was fifteen or so, not that his advices are not pertinent anymore, but that it would have been quite beneficial at the time to hear them, reassuri...more
briefly about the letters:
something i wish i had read when i was fifteen or so, not that his advices are not pertinent anymore, but that it would have been quite beneficial at the time to hear them, reassuri...more
Letters to A Young Poet is a correspondence between Rainer Maria Rilke (German lyrical poet) and Franz Xaver Kappus (A young struggling student). I was given this book by a good friend while I was teaching English in Belmead, TX (a small urban community north of Waco). This book came to me in a time when I was struggling with life and needed some encouragement to show me that what I was doing was needed and necessary. This book gave me that and more.
The dialogue between these tw...more
The dialogue between these tw...more
Irony: Don't let yourself be controlled by it, especially during uncreative moments. When you are fully creative, try to use it, as one more way to take hold of life. Used purely, it too is pure, and one needn't be ashamed of it; but if you feel yourself becoming too familiar with it, if you are afraid of this growing familiarity, then turn to great and serious objects, in front of which it becomes small and helpless. Search into the depths of Things: there, irony never descends - and when you a...more
I started reading this book with the expectation that I would work my way through it quickly, but I ended up being driven through each letter by a hunger that had me finishing the whole thing in an hour. Among the many effects it had on me, I was left feeling humbled by the depth of what was able to express. He went far beyond simply addressing the concerns of how to be a true artist (though his insights in that respect were priceless), and he touched various inarticulate threads of my spirit wi...more
What I liked the most about this book is that in nearly every letter to the young poet, Rilke promotes the poet to search himself and thrive in his own solitude. Rilke's letters of honesty to the young poet resound with me because he advises the poet but does not demand that his young protege do anything other than embrace all that solitude brings to him, to understand the difficulty of solitude, and to realize that the difficult is more fulfilling than any other endevour the young poet could ...more
Sarah
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Recommends it for:
anyone and everyone, even if you aren't an aspiring poet
"have patience with everything unresolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves, as if they were locked rooms or books written in a very foreign language. don't search for the answers, which could not be given to you now, because you would not be able to live them. and the point is to live everything. live the question now. perhaps then, some day far in the future, you will gradually, without even noticing it, live your way into the answer."
I can find inspi...more
I can find inspi...more
I was inspired to read this because of an article at the 99% website about Rilke's letters. The book is a collection of ten letters he wrote to a young aspiring poet who was at a crossroads in his life, trying to choose between the uncertainty of a poet's life and a military career. His letters are compassionate and inspiring, highlighting the trials and tribulations of being an artist but also the intrinsic rewards of staying the course. The fact he took the time over the course of ten years to...more
This book divides me, unequally.
So there's this younger me—college sophomore, terribly confused, desperate, and unconsolably depressed, who recites You Who Never Arrived on long walks at night, and who sees poetry as a way to, somehow, emancipate the soul: yes, that type—who sees Letters To A Young Poet as something immaculate, who might as well put the hundred-page paperback in a glass case, on top of a pedestal, and worship it every morning. He is the smaller half, perhaps fiftee...more
So there's this younger me—college sophomore, terribly confused, desperate, and unconsolably depressed, who recites You Who Never Arrived on long walks at night, and who sees poetry as a way to, somehow, emancipate the soul: yes, that type—who sees Letters To A Young Poet as something immaculate, who might as well put the hundred-page paperback in a glass case, on top of a pedestal, and worship it every morning. He is the smaller half, perhaps fiftee...more
Jasun Chelat
added it
I am no poet, but he might as well have been writing to me.
But I guess that's the point of it, isn't it? Everybody at the beginning of beginnings, is so 'unutterably alone', so given to introspection and self-doubt like poets are for all their lives, I suppose.
Rainer Maria Rilke is one of my favorite poets and every word that he writes overflows with poetry, of the most beautiful and soulful kind.
This book is one of those books that you can write only little about because you d...more
But I guess that's the point of it, isn't it? Everybody at the beginning of beginnings, is so 'unutterably alone', so given to introspection and self-doubt like poets are for all their lives, I suppose.
Rainer Maria Rilke is one of my favorite poets and every word that he writes overflows with poetry, of the most beautiful and soulful kind.
This book is one of those books that you can write only little about because you d...more
This one’s worth it for its sheer intensity and for its paradoxical combination of narcissism and selflessness. On the one hand, Rilke is ostensibly responding to fan mail — a series of unsolicited letters from a novice poet named Franz Xaver Kappus — by waxing philosophical about his own existence. There is the sense of journaling to this work, a certain note-to-self nature that, at times, seems to bypass Kappus and his concerns entirely.
On the other hand, how magnanimous of Rilke to ...more
On the other hand, how magnanimous of Rilke to ...more
For those of you not poetically inclined, Rainer Maria Rilke is a significant German poet from the turn of the 20th century. This book is a compilation of letters that he wrote to a young man he did not know personally, but with whom he created a lengthy correspondence.
It's a short book, but so rich (bordering on dense) that it took me longer to read than I'd anticipated. Rilke is DEEP, friends. His letters are so thought-out, so clearly thoughtful and full of personal insight that...more
It's a short book, but so rich (bordering on dense) that it took me longer to read than I'd anticipated. Rilke is DEEP, friends. His letters are so thought-out, so clearly thoughtful and full of personal insight that...more
We should all be so lucky to have such a generous and honest and profound mentor. Though I can't help but think that Rilke was also, and perhaps, primarily, writing for posterity in these letters,his compassionate tone confirms his genuine concern for Kappus.
These letters are not an intro to the craft of writing poetry, but an exploration of the life of an artist, in the broadest and best sense possible; a life of creativity necessary for making any endeavor meaningful.
...more
These letters are not an intro to the craft of writing poetry, but an exploration of the life of an artist, in the broadest and best sense possible; a life of creativity necessary for making any endeavor meaningful.
...more
I first read this book immediately after graduating from college (when I should have been preparing to go into an MFA program, but I put it off, and am trying again now). My last class of my last semester was "The Dilemma of Existence." I was in love with Sartre, Kafka, Camus, & Rilke... I was excited and terrified to be graduating from college. At the end of my final class, my professor and I talked about my future, how she thought I should pursue my MFA, and how I loved living a l...more
Les exigences de l'expression poétique telles qu'expliquées par Rilke à un jeune soldat de l'armée Habsbourgeoise qui se questionne sur sa vocation. N'importe qui peut aller puiser un peu de sagesse pour adolescent dans cet échange épistolaire mais en gros ça ne dit rien de plus reluisant que "si tu veux vraiment écrire, tu vas écrire". Le reste c'est du pleurnichage d'Autrichien pâmé devant des arbres et des p'tits moyneaux. Il s'agissait d'une relecture après un laps de 10 ans. Ce...more
Some books simply change our lives and the way we look at the world again. This book, changed mine. As a wannabe writer / director Rilke's 10 letters influenced me more than any other book.
It will take a very deeply cynical heart to not fall in love with Rilke's words and thoughts for they are honest yet heartfelt, guiding yet firm, healing yet tender. His words are also very counterintuitive today. When he speaks of solitude (for a writer), he acknowledges its difficulty but also stre...more
It will take a very deeply cynical heart to not fall in love with Rilke's words and thoughts for they are honest yet heartfelt, guiding yet firm, healing yet tender. His words are also very counterintuitive today. When he speaks of solitude (for a writer), he acknowledges its difficulty but also stre...more
What made me pick this book, was that before I started reading it, I thought that this would be another book filled with poems. To my surprise though, this book was filled with letters, which I should have already known y the title. Anyway, these letters are written from Rainer Maria Rilke, to a person named Mr. Kappus, who is a person that sends letters to Rilke, about advice on poetry I assume. Because this book only contains letters that were sent to Mr. Kappus, by Rilke, and none of the l...more
By turns inspiring and challenging, this collection of letters from the lyrical poet Rilke to an aspiring poet offers wise insights on more than just a career as a writer. Solitude, life, love, faith, sorrow, pain, healing and work are all explored with a sincerity that rings through the words, leaving echoes in the soul that offer comfort and encouragement.
Not everyone will enjoy the philosophical meanderings as Rilke gently attempts to guide a young stranger into a deeper, more me...more
Not everyone will enjoy the philosophical meanderings as Rilke gently attempts to guide a young stranger into a deeper, more me...more
Do you remember the last time when you felt you were COMPELLED to do something? What was that?
Maybe we should build our life around that kind of necessity.
In an ideal world -- must say again "in an ideal world" -- it will be nice if we find passion in our job, or the things we do for a living. Sometimes we get lost, but that's only human.
Rilke's Letters To A Young Poet is a collection of correspondence between Rilke and a young German Franz Kappus wh...more
Maybe we should build our life around that kind of necessity.
In an ideal world -- must say again "in an ideal world" -- it will be nice if we find passion in our job, or the things we do for a living. Sometimes we get lost, but that's only human.
Rilke's Letters To A Young Poet is a collection of correspondence between Rilke and a young German Franz Kappus wh...more
Rilke. I saw the image of that name as though I'd been there before. I dug through old journals and sure enough, in between the pages from 9/23/09, where I described a girl named Rachel, from Nevada, who I noted, "belched out loud several times and blamed the acid reflux", and in between Tom Robbins quotes from Even Cowgirls Get the Blues, there is quote from Rilke (1934), "You are looking outward and that above all you should not do now...there is only one single way. Go into you...more
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| Translations | 1 | 16 | Jan 09, 2009 08:41pm | |
| A good Poet | 2 | 29 | Feb 24, 2007 11:34am |
Rainer Maria Rilke is considered one of the German language's greatest 20th century poets.
His haunting images tend to focus on the difficulty of communion with the ineffable in an age of disbelief, solitude, and profound anxiety — themes that tend to position him as a transitional figure between the traditional and the modernist poets.
He wrote in both verse and a highly ly...more
More about Rainer Maria Rilke...
His haunting images tend to focus on the difficulty of communion with the ineffable in an age of disbelief, solitude, and profound anxiety — themes that tend to position him as a transitional figure between the traditional and the modernist poets.
He wrote in both verse and a highly ly...more
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“The point of marriage is not to create a quick commonality by tearing down all boundaries; on the contrary, a good marriage is one in which each partner appoints the other to be the guardian of his solitude, and thus they show each other the greatest possible trust. A merging of two people is an impossibility, and where it seems to exist, it is a hemming-in, a mutual consent that robs one party or both parties of their fullest freedom and development. But once the realization is accepted that even between the closest people infinite distances exist, a marvelous living side-by-side can grow up for them, if they succeed in loving the expanse between them, which gives them the possibility of always seeing each other as a whole and before an immense sky.”
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“Therefore, dear Sir, love your solitude and try to sing out with the pain it causes you. For those who are near you are far away... and this shows that the space around you is beginning to grow vast.... be happy about your growth, in which of course you can't take anyone with you, and be gentle with those who stay behind; be confident and calm in front of them and don't torment them with your doubts and don't frighten them with your faith or joy, which they wouldn't be able to comprehend. Seek out some simple and true feeling of what you have in common with them, which doesn't necessarily have to alter when you yourself change again and again; when you see them, love life in a form that is not your own and be indulgent toward those who are growing old, who are afraid of the aloneness that you trust.... and don't expect any understanding; but believe in a love that is being stored up for you like an inheritance, and have faith that in this love there is a strength and a blessing so large that you can travel as far as you wish without having to step outside it.”
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