Letters to a Young Poet

Additional Letters to a Young Poet Information

Drawn by some sympathetic note in his poems, young people often wrote to Rilke with their problems and hopes. From 1903 to 1908 Rilke wrote a series of remarkable responses to a young would-be poet, on poetry and on surviving as a sensitive observer in a harsh world. Accompanying the letters is a chronicle of Rilke's life showing what he was experiencing in his own relationship to life and work when he wrote these letters.

What Customers Say About Letters to a Young Poet:

great book, there are better translations out there. this translation is very literal whereas other translations i've read are more lyrical and in the style as it was written in German

What a wonderful book. Besides the fact that Rilke often makes excuses for long periods of time between his letters, his words are brilliant and thoughtful. Not unlike "The Last Lecture" there is some "you should live this way," but it is done in a much more tactful manner. I highly recommend this read.

It is a matter of living everything. One of these is Rainer Maria Rilke's Letters to a Young Poet. We learn that Kappus, during the course of his military service, has lost faith in God, and Rilke asks him, "Is it not much rather the case that you have never yet possessed him. Yet, what Kappus realizes, and so too the reader, is that his offerings are absolutely unnecessary because we see them through Rilke's eyes.

He tells the young Kappus: "And your doubt can become a good quality if you train it. Rilke readily assumes the mantle of humble mentor, dispensing pearls of wisdom in a language that teaches the young Kappus that not all poetry is written in stanzas.One wonders if Rilke was indeed writing to the world. His replies to Kappus are lofty but sincere, and filled with passages that seem destined for quotation:"Do not search now for the answers which cannot be given you because you could not live them. There are works that surface time and time again in cultural circles, in film, literature, music, etc. The letters capture the spirit of a man, not yet old, but weathered by experience. In these letters to Kappus, Rilke seizes the opportunity to work out his own philosophy through provocative and probing questions.

Do you believe a child can hold him, him whom men bear only with difficulty, whose weight bows down on the aged." Rilke is ready to be not only a literary mentor, but a theological counselor.No subject is taboo for Rilke, who quite readily addresses sexual intimacy as he does some rather unconventional thoughts about women:"Surely women, in whom life tarries and dwells more immediately, fruitfully and confidently, must have become fundamentally more mature human beings, more human human beings, than light man, whom the weight of no body's fruit pulls down beneath the surface of life, who, conceited and rash as he is, underrates what he thinks he loves."Even in his criticisms of Kappus (both of his work and his character) he is ever gentle, crafting his words with the care of both poet and teacher. He is self-effacing, but sure in his prose.

In Kappus' military station Rilke saw much of himself, having been pressured to enter a military academy at a young age. 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.

It must become aware, it must become criticism." However, in the four year gap between the letter that contained those words and what would be his last letter to Kappus, we see that his final offering is tinged by reality and somewhat removed from the more romantic musings of his earlier letters:"Art too is only a way of living, and one can prepare for it, living somehow, without knowing it; in everything real one is a closer, nearer neighbour to it than in the unreal semi-artistic professions which, while they make show of a relatedness to art, in practice deny and attack the existence of all art, as for instance the whole of journalism does, and almost all criticism and three quarters of what calls itself and likes to be called literature. Live the questions now.

Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it, one distant day live right into the answer."For Rilke, bite-size gifts of mature sophistry (in the Classical sense of the word) will not suffice. I am glad, in a word, that you have overcome the danger of ending up there, and remain solitary and courageous somewhere in a raw reality."As the translator comments, Kappus did indeed end up "there," publishing several "cheap popular novels." But in the end, the debt to Kappus is greater than his debt to, or at least reverence for, Rilke.

We get a sense that Rilke is writing to a younger version of himself, encouraging the hope and youth that inspired him to write in his poem, "To Celebrate Myself":"I long to be a garden at whose fountainsmy thronging dreams would pluck themselves new blooms."A reader of Rilke's letters will indeed be ready to grasp a garden full of blooms.

No complaints there. I ordered 11 copies of Letters to a Young Poet for my graduating seniors in my Advanced Art class. The price was good, they arrived in a timely manner, and in fabulous condition. I didn't take into consideration, however, that different translations can alter your experience of a work of literature so very much. I did not like this translation as much as the one I am more familiar with (from Shambala press) and was a bit disappointed with this version.

This is a short collection of inspiring letters from the poet Rainer Maria Rilke to a young fan and aspiring poet. The letters were written between February 1903 and December 1908, as Rilke moved around Europe. The advice and Rilke gives the young man is inspiring in itself, but what is most moving is the passion with which Rilke writes. This book should be required reading for anyone entering any creative field, writing or otherwise, because Rilke's greatest piece of advice--to create something that comes from inside you and is for you, not something you think someone else will like or will want to buy--is the best artistic advice one can give.