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Letters to a Young Poet
Letters to a Young Poet
Letters to a Young Poet
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Letters to a Young Poet

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Born in Prague when it was part of the Austro-Hungarian empire and recognized today as a master of verse, poet Rainer Maria Rilke was considerably less well known in 1902 when he received a heartfelt letter from an aspiring poet. A 19-year-old student sent Rilke some of his verses, seeking an opinion of their worth. Rilke declined to offer a critique, instead encouraging the student to rely upon his own inner judgment: "Nobody can advise and help you, nobody. There is only one single means. Go inside yourself."
This seemingly dismissive letter proved to be the first of ten, written during a six-year period that coincided with an important stage in Rilke's artistic development. The poet offered his young correspondent further advice on developing a rich inner life as well as guidance on broader philosophical and existential issues. These letters, which explore many of the themes that later emerged in Rilke's best works, remain a captivating source of insights into the artistic identity and process.
LanguageEnglish
Release dateApr 17, 2019
ISBN9780486839509
Author

Rainer Maria Rilke

Rainer Maria Rilke was born in Prague in 1875 and traveled throughout Europe for much of his adult life, returning frequently to Paris. There he came under the influence of the sculptor Auguste Rodin and produced much of his finest verse, most notably the two volumes of New Poems as well as the great modernist novel The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge. Among his other books of poems are The Book of Images and The Book of Hours. He lived the last years of his life in Switzerland, where he completed his two poetic masterworks, the Duino Elegies and Sonnets to Orpheus. He died of leukemia in December 1926.

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  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    These ten letters from the poet Rilke’s contain not only advice on poetry and writing in general, but advice on many of the facets of life itself. Franz Kappus wrote to Rilke who had been at the same military school as Rilke around a decade earlier, and received this letters in return to his ongoing correspondence between 1903 and 1908. This was an interesting time for Rilke, who throughout was struggling to work productively. Though he had already published two collections of poems which had made him relatively well-known, he was in a rut throughout much of this period, travelling around and working on various things, including a study of Rodin whom he got to know quite well. It was only years later that Rilke receive the intense bout of creative inspiration that led to his writing the scores of poems of the celebrated Duino Elegies and Sonnets to Orpheus which he completed over a few weeks in 1922. Rilke is very sympathetic and understanding in these letters. He is kindly and helpful, and has much insight on the difficulties of life. We do not have here the letters that Kappus wrote to Rilke, as these letters were only published years later by Kappus, who naturally did not have the copies of the letters he himself sent. At the end of this volume we have a brief section covering the context of what Rilke was doing around the time when he wrote each of these letters, which is useful to have. These letters are not just of use to the would-be poet, but contain so much good advice and insight into life that they would be worth reading for anyone who does not quite know what to do with themselves. Generally a handy volume to have around to dip back into when necessary.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    In our 'constantly connected' computer age, Rilke's deep exploration of solitude and patient artistic growth is a breath of inspiration.

    "Only love can touch and hold [works of art] and be fair to them," he writes to Kappus, and then admonishes him to "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 blessing so large that you can travel as far as you wish without having to step outside it."

    It is an understatement to say that Rilke sets the bar high for poetic expression, but every time I read through these letters I'm inspired to at least try to create what he'd call a few good lines before I breathe my last.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    This is a short but thought-filled book that provides sage advice for writers, poets, and just about anyone. Rainer discusses topics such as the value of solitude, the nature of love, and personal growth. Written with wisdom and compassion, the book is filled with life experience that has been processed and well understood through time. In these ten short letters, Rilke provides some great advice, especially concerning our uncertainties about ourselves and the unknown future."Just as people for a long time had a wrong idea about the sun's motion, they are even now wrong about the motion of what is to come. The future stands still, Dear Mr. Kappus, but we move in infinite space."
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Rainer Maria Rilke was a poet born in Prague (then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire) in 1875. He is generally labeled a “mystic” and has developed something of a cult following over the years. Rilke's poems are considered quite difficult to translate from the German, and frankly, I even have trouble understanding them in English. His letters, on the other hand, are quite comprehensible and even inspirational.This little volume is the latest of one of many translations of Rilke’s famous set of ten letters he wrote between 1902 and 1908 to a “fan” – an aspiring poet. The young man, Franz Kappus, 19, sent Rilke some poems and asked him if he would evaluate them, and whether he, Kappus, should risk all by becoming a poet full-time. Rilke, then only 28, answered generously, at length, and in great detail about what constitutes creativity and poetry, and how to channel the former into the latter. (What a dream-come-true for a “fan” of an author!)The letters give you a sense of Rilke’s great facility with words, and provide an interior portrait of an artist (himself) that is revelatory and moving.Don’t stop at the first letter; in it Rilke claims no one can help another with writing. But thereafter, Rilke goes on to advise Kappus about how and where to find the creative thoughts within himself. (Not only within: he does go on a bit about how “creativity of the spirit has its origin in the physical kind, is of one nature with it and only a more delicate, more rapt and less fleeting version of the carnal sort of sex.”)Poetry and sex. Who knew?But here, perhaps, is a better example of the beauty of his writing, when he explains to Kappus how Rome has helped his equanimity:"No, there is not more beauty here than elsewhere, and all these objects which generation after generation have continued to admire, which inexpert hands have mended and restored, they mean nothing, are nothing, and have no heart and no value; but there is a great deal of beauty here, because there is beauty everywhere.Infinitely lively waters go over the old aqueducts into the city and on the many squares dance over bowls of white stone and fill broad capacious basins and murmur all day and raise their murmur into the night, which is vast and starry and soft with winds. And there are gardens here, unforgettable avenues and flights of steps, steps conceived by Michelangelo, steps built to resemble cascades of flowing water – giving birth to step after broad step like wave after wave as they descend the incline. With the help of such impressions you regain your composure, win your way back out of the demands of the talking and chattering multitude (how voluble it is!), and you slowly learn to recognize the very few things in which something everlasting can be felt, something you can love, something solitary in which you can take part in silence.”Discussion: Can the prowess of Rilke be evinced through this (or any) translation? I have no idea. Rilke himself said in a letter to his long-time friend/lover Lou Andreas- Salomé that when he wrote on the same subject in French as well as German, the content “developed very differently in the two languages: which argues strongly against the naturalness of translation.”I cannot read Rilke in German, and thus I don’t feel able to say how good this particular translation is, although it is easy enough to find and compare others. Take, for example, the passage cited above about Rome. In this version, the translator has Rilke saying that “inexpert hands” have mended the beautiful objects of Rome. Another version I checked uses “workmen.” My impression is that restoring objets d'art is an extremely painstaking process requiring great skill, so I don’t find those concepts fungible. But, I have no idea what the passage says in the original German, so I have no knowledge about which construction is closer to Rilke’s intent. And in any event, otherwise I thought that this beautiful passage comes forth much clearer in this translation than the other. Generally, however, among translations, I think there is more variation in the associated matter (intro, notes, and the like) than in the text itself. What I can say that I found Rilke’s thoughts riveting. In the course of talking about creativity, he also muses on power relationships, love, gender roles, sickness and health, cowardice and fortitude, and how to think about what happens in life generally. I especially like this passage:"… imagining an individual’s existence as a larger or smaller room reveals to us that most people are only acquainted with one corner of their particular room … That way, they have a certain security. And yet … perilous uncertainty … is so much more human. … How can we forget those ancient myths found at the beginning of all peoples? The myths about the dragons who at the last moment turn into princesses? Perhaps all the dragons in our lives are princesses, only waiting for the day when they will see us handsome and brave? Perhaps everything terrifying is deep down a helpless thing that needs our help.” These letters will give you a very good sense of Rilke’s genius, his quixoticism, and lots of ideas to think about as well. And I particularly enjoyed being able to read something by Rilke that I actually understood….Note: This edition was translated and edited by Charlie Louth, and contains an introduction by Lewis Hyde.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Ten of Rilke's letters to a young aspiring poet. Practical advices and recommended readings amongst meditations on moral and solitude life. A mixed bag, had some interesting parts but in whole it was a bit boring.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Published 2016 (Portuguese translation and afterword by José Miranda Justo).

    “Dieses vor allem: fragen Sie sich in der stillsten Stunde ihrer Nacht: ‘muss ich schreiben?’ Graben Sie in sich nach einer tiefen Antwort. Und wenn diese zustimmed lauten sollte, wenn Sie mit einem starken und einfachen ‘Ich muss’ dieser ernsten Frage begegnen dürfen, dann bauen Sie Ihr Leben nach dieser Notwendingkeit.”

    This book has been my favourite book for twenty years or more. When I was attending the Goethe Institute I had access to its library which is huge. I could request any book I wanted, and the services of the Goethe library would provide me with it. It was literally manna from heaven...Consequently, I never had a copy for myself. Until now. This gorgeous edition translated from German into Portuguese (bilingual edition), produced something worth having. It's a fine addition to my German library at home. On top of that the translation is far from serviceable. Apart from this translation, I only had come into contact with the translation done by Vasco Graça Moura which is a different beast altogether.

    I think the first time I wrote about Rilke was in 2008. What more can I say that I haven’t said before? Apparently still lots remained to be said and written…

    If you're into German Literature, Rilke in particular, read the rest of this review on my blog.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Maybe a century has made this work less -- shocking? valuable? relatable?
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Worth reading, especially if you are an artist or writer. There are gems of advice tucked here and there. Rilke's letters to Franz Kappus make we wish I could travel back in time and talk to one or both of them.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    LOVE THIS.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    This is a charming little book, as fluid and emotive as Rilke's own poetry. Honest in its advice, and how it is unafraid to take on the darker realms of emotion and embrace the fate of the world.

    Being a writer or a poet is a task of intense devotion, and Rilke gives it proper reverence. Rilke's focus is on the benefits of solitude and meditation, but also the steady work involved in this task, and how the writer must keep working so as to refine their craft.

    This is a (dare I say?) very spiritual book. Recommended to all.

  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    In 1902, 19-year-old cadet Franz Kappus wrote to Rainer Maria Rilke for his thoughts on some poems he had written. Rilke was known for a few acclaimed books of poetry and was beginning to really hone his craft. Kappus wanted genuine criticism and was trying to decide between a career in the army or a life as a writer. The ten letters he saved and subsequently published as Letters to a Young Poet are some of the most genuine and honest assessments of the field of poetry and the duty of the poet. Morton’s translation of Rilke letters is all at once succinct, plain, and gorgeous. Rilke needs few words to impart to Kappus the importance of poetry and how one should go about writing it. “Nobody can advise you and help you,” he says, “nobody. There is only one way. Go into yourself.” Rilke decries the professional critic, the editor, and even the friend who seeks to help the poet. All poetry must come from a place free of outside judgment. Rilke also helps Kappus through a series of crises, including ones of sexuality, intimacy, and professionalism. Rilke takes a little longer to respond to each letter, almost trying to wean Kappus off using him as a critical crutch. In ten simple letters, Rilke gives a very good master class in poetry. If you’re a writer or a lover of poetry, this one will make for a grand and quick read.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    These are 10 letters that Rainer Maria Rilke sent in reply to a young man who began the correspondence with regard to his own poetry's worth.I would very much like to read more from this man. Many, many things that he said (though not all) were deeply-profound and affecting, one quote by him in particular was relevant and moving in my life right now, and so I am thankful to have been able to read such words as his. His perspective, even where mine differed, engaged me in deep and interesting thought."To express yourself, use the things that surround you, the pictures of your dreams and the objects of your recollections. When your daily life seems barren, do not blame it; blame yourself rather and tell yourself that you are not poet enough to call forth its riches; for the creative worker knows no barrenness and no poor indifferent place.""And when from this turning inwards, from this retreat into your own world, verses come into being, then you will not think of asking anyone, whether they are good verses.""You cannot disturb [your course of development] more drastically than if you direct your thoughts outwards and expect from without the answer to questions which probably only your innermost feeling in the quietest hour of your life can answer.""Attach yourself to Nature, to the simple and small in her, which hardly anyone sees, but which can so unexpectedly turn into the great and the immeasurable.""Ripen like a tree which does not force its sap, but in the storms of spring stands confident without being afraid that afterwards no summer may come."It makes me long for such meaningful correspondence with another, and I think that all artists should glimpse upon these words, for the book is short, but will last beyond the pages."And for the rest, let life happen to you. Believe me, life is right in every case."
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I loved it. A little too much religion and emphasis on purity, and I'm pretty sure why he's as depressive as he was, but still mainly good advice.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    “Perhaps all the dragons in our lives are princesses who are only waiting to see us act, just once, with beauty and courage.”

    It feels quite trite to say this slim collection is inspirational.
    But there you go.
    It is.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    These are the letter Rainer Maria Rilke wrote to the young, aspiring poet Franz Xaver Kappus. Through these letters, Rilke imparts his thoughts and feelings on living your life to its fullest potential, but to also make sure that you stay true to yourself throughout. I read through this book every couple of years, and it never fails to amaze me how a collection of letters written over 90 years ago can still have so much to offer us today. My copy is dog-eared from multiple readings, with numerous passages underlined, but I still seem to find something new in each reading that is relevant to my life right now.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Ten letters written between 1903 and 1908 to Franz Xaver Kappus, an aspiring poet writing to Rilke for advice. Rilke wrote the letters from Paris, Viareggio (near Pisa, Italy, and near where Shelley drowned), Rome, and Sweden. Much if not all of the collected letters discuss the creative process and the writing life. They were written (as the editor's supplementary biographical "chronicle" illustrates) during a time when Rilke was reflecting on his own unproductive spells. Rilke arguably wrote the letters more to himself and to the eternity of future writers as a kind of "credo" than to his particular correspondent, so for those seeking to understand Rilke the exclusion of Kappus' letters is probably inconsequential. Topics include: the creative process, irony, the poet's proper indifference to criticism and even feedback, sex (and its closeness to artistic experience), solitude, God, difficulty ("we must always hold to the difficult"), love (loving rightly and wrongly), the difference between the sexes, the future, convention and the poet's anti-conventionalism, repetition, emotions and doubt. "This, above all, ask yourself in the stillest hour of the night: must I write? Delve deep into yourself. And if this should be affirmative, if you may meet this question witha strong and simple 'I must' then build your lfie according to this necessity; your life even into its most indifferent and slightest hour must be a sign of this urge and a testimony to it."The book can be read in a day, and should be read by every aspiring writer in a very quiet place, in solitude. Very German.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Lovely collection of letters, advising a younger poet about life and art. As with most great works, it's greater than the sum of its parts. Rilke's musings and recommendations penetrate into humans' purpose, and how we fulfill that purpose. Or don't.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    These ten letters give us a glimpse into Rilke's philosophies of writing and life in general. They are at times very interesting, but at times boring. The mini biography of Rilke's life at the back gives the letters context, but is very boring.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    These days everyone prefers the Stephen Mitchell translation, but I first read this book in Norton's translation and I confess to thinking it superior. I fell in love with this book when my dear friend Nicole Salimbene gave it to me for college graduation. I have loved it for many years, often going to it to remember to "love my solitude."
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Rilke wrote a series of letters to the young poet, Franz Xaver Kappus, beginning in 1902. Kappus was reading Rilke's poetry under the chestnut tress at the Military Academy in Wiener Nuestadt when his teacher, Horaček, noticed the volume. Rilke had been a pupil at the Military Lower School in Sankt Pölten when Horaček was a chaplain there, and Horaček had known Rilke personally. The military proved not to be for Rilke, and he continued his studies in Prague. Kappus, however, felt that his own choice to pursue a military career was "directly opposed to my own inclinations", yet would continue his military career for years after. In the meantime, Kappus decided to write to Rilke to ask for feedback on his own poetry, and Rilke maintained their correspondence despite his constant travels. By Rilke's tone in the letters, it is obvious that he enjoyed his correspondence with Kappus, and often told Kappus that if he wished to be a poet, he would need to change careers, or, at worst, he might find time in barracks life to keep at his poetry. The book provides Rilke's correspondence to Kappus, beginning with his return letter of 1903 and continuing until 1908. The book also includes a second work, The Letter from the Young Worker, which adopts a letter format to "a polemic against Christianity". This style recalls the dialogues of Plato and others, but in this case is one side of a potential written conversation. In many ways, the style mirrors the way we read Rilke's correspondence with Kappus, only having (mostly) one side of the narrative. In his first response, Rilke provides some important feedback. He suggests that Kappus' poetry lacks an identity. He suggests that Kappus is looking to the outside, but the answer is (pp. 6-7):Go into yourself. Examine the reason that bids you to write. This above all: ask yourself in your night's quietest hour: must I write? Dig down deep into yourself for a deep answer. And if it should be affirmative, if it is given to you to respond to this serious question with a loud and simple "I must', then construct your life according to this necessity; your life right into its most inconsequential and slightest hour must become a witness to this urge... A work of art is good if it has risen out of necessity... Accept this answer as it is, without seeking to interpret it. Perhaps it will turn out that you are called to be an artist... Then assume this fate and bear it, its burden and its greatness, without ever asking after the rewards that may come from outside.Imagine having such a mentor? Rilke was patient, kind, and wise. His connection with Kappus has, perhaps, something to do with being a poet while in the military system, something I identify with personally (having found that the military was, once I neared the tell-tale signs of the evening of my youth, "directly opposed to my own inclinations"). There is so much in such a short work, with Rilke's advice becoming "Candidean" - "take refuge in [subjects] offered by your own day-to-day life" - and focused on the individual rather than the work (and not in a mean-spirited way but as a mentor). Given that Kappus continues his military career and does not become a poet of any note, and that Rilke was the opposite in springing from the military's well, it makes me wonder: should we take care in choosing our careers so we do not waste time in the wrong station? Or should we learn what really floats our boat through trial and error? I suspect, based on Rilke's care for Kappus' work, that Rilke really knew himself as a result, while I felt that, perhaps, Kappus had taken the easy option.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    I'll preface this with the admission that I'm not a poet and neither an avid poetry reader nor writer. "Roses are red, violets are not. I've got hay fever and plenty of..." You get the point. I was led to read this by my brother-in-law who spontaneously recites appropriate German poetry to fit the situation and then kindly translates it into English. I was particularly taken by a poem he recited by Rainer Maria Rilke, and sought out more information about him. This work is essentially ten letters that Rilke wrote to a younger poet over a relatively short period of time. While some of each is rather mundane sorry-I-didn't-write-sooner type stuff, much is extremely compelling, insightful, thought-provoking, and lyrically-phrased. What he has to say in some letters goes way beyond how-to-be-a-better-poet to how to view and deal with life itself. I cannot say that I understand or agree with everything he has said, but he most definitely got my attention.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Rainer Maria Rilke's Letters to a young poet, at the beginning of the twentieth century.In 1903, by choosing to answer a letter and few poems sent him by the nineteen-year-old Mr. Kappus, Rilke, then twenty-seven, initiated a five-year intermittent exchange of letters that became one of the most famous in the literature of the world. The two men started off by acknowledging solitude as both a burden and a gift, but even more as the sole foundation without which no genuine poetic work could even emerge -- this solitude seen as the center around which their letters, and their lives, revolved and to which their discussions returned again and again.Both men wrote out of that particular reality each was facing and dealing with at the time: Kappus, revealing himself to another as never before, out of his confusion and need for help; and Rilke, now with wife and child, starting to see for the first time how terribly great that distance was both within and around him because of who and what at core he was. He feared it greatly and longed to be freed of the suffering it brought; he even touched on it in these letters, but though he finally came to see the kind of relating that would transcend it, he could not manage to arrive there. The powerful themes of creativity and love arise, and insights are found here regarding both of these as profound as any to be found anywhere. As Pascal once observed: the ones we love the most are not those who give us something we did not have before, but those who show us the richness of what we already possess. That is a way of saying what Rilke was doing for Kappus: showing him the richness -- as well as the cost -- of acquiring what he already possessed. And in doing this, Rilke was also speaking to himself as well.What the two found is seen in what they wrote. Their efforts were rewarded. Will yours be in reading of theirs? What you will find, depends on whether you bring to the reading of their words that same fullness of living from your life that they brought to the writing of theirs. But there is, perhaps, a way of getting at least an inkling of whether reading the book would be worth your time. Try reading this: "And if it frightens and torments you to think of childhood and of the simplicity and silence that accompanies it, because you can no longer believe in God, who appears in it everywhere, then ask yourself, dear Mr. Kappus, whether you have really lost God. Isn't it much truer to say that you have never yet possessed him? For when could that have been? Do you think that a child can hold him, him whom grown men bear only with great effort and whose weight crushes the old? Do you suppose that someone who really has him could lose him like a little stone? . . . But if you realize that he did not exist in your childhood, and did not exist previously, if you suspect that Christ was deluded by his yearning and Muhammad deceived by his pride -- and if you are terrified to feel that even now he does not exist, even at this moment when we are talking about him -- what justifies you then, if he never existed, in missing him like someone who has passed away and in searching for him as though he were lost?"Why don't you think of him as the one who is coming, who has been approaching from all eternity, the one who will someday arrive . . . What keeps you from projecting his birth into the ages that are coming into existence, and living your life as a painful and lovely day in the history of a great pregnancy? Don't you see how everything that happens is again and again a beginning, and couldn't it be His beginning, since, in itself, starting is always so beautiful?"Remember, that is only his prose. We've yet to get to the poetry that critics of every kind admit extended the range of the German language, bringing forth melodies and a use of imagery that wasn't found in it before. But if you find no such promise in this, then I recommend you pass this book by and go on to other things that strike and stir you instead.Of the numerous translations of Rilke's book into English, Stephen Mitchell's is the one I most prefer. For me, his comes closest to the common tongue, and has such a natural elegance to it that it lets Rilke's own shine through. Rilke's book speaks for itself, and Mitchell has the humility to let it. Enough said.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I've read this every coupla years or so since I was of the age of the "young poet." I've consistently found something new in it as I grow older. Reading it as a full-fledged adult is an entirely different experience. It becomes clear just how much it is specifically for the youth. As a mature reader, one can easily see and understand the tension between Rilke's demands that one find comfort in their own solitude and the command to love unconventionally, at any chance one gets. When I was younger, I understood the necessity of solitude as a buffering oneself from the vicissitudes of life--of exploring your own desires and passions at all costs, of allowing yourself a certain kind of selfishness in such a pursuit. I didn't understand how one could both allow their own loneliness and also be open to the possibility of connection.In my 20s this bothered me: the idea of "two solitudes greeting each other." Now I realize that it is simply an ontological reality he describes. Rilke is telling the young poet: "Listen, loneliness is a fact of life. Better to get acquainted with it, comfortable with it. The better you know yourself, the more okay with yourself you are, and the better you can love."
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    “Perhaps all the dragons in our lives are princesses who are only waiting to see us act, just once, with beauty and courage.”

    It feels quite trite to say this slim collection is inspirational.
    But there you go.
    It is.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Sincere, and beautifully written letters that provide inspiration to aspiring poets. Very heartfelt and revealing in content.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Beautiful... Not a "how to write" book, a beautiful book about the art of writing.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Rilke gives practical advice and hard-won lessons to a young acolyte. A great gift for young or aspiring writers...
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Beautiful, poignant prose and advice. "Heavy" and "depressing" at times. I would have liked to see Mr. Kappus' letters to Rilke included in the collection, but, nevertheless, it has some great advice for all types of writers.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    It's amazing that someone can write letters on the fly (were they edited at all?) and have them be an almost flawless mixture of essays and poetry, philosophy and personal experience. I can only wish it was longer.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    It is a moving book and a youthful book. I wish I had it all along. Rilke writes with love and deep understanding, thoughts that at first seem like platitudes because of their generality and ring of truth. They could be in a self help book if not for the complexity of thought and phrasing he brings, the thought-throughness of it, and the many unconventional quirks he throws in. This is a book to be re-read many times over.

Book preview

Letters to a Young Poet - Rainer Maria Rilke

LETTERS TO A YOUNG POET

RAINER MARIA RILKE 1925

DOVER THRIFT EDITIONS

GENERAL EDITOR: SUSAN L. RATTINER

EDITOR OF THIS VOLUME: JANET B. KOPITO

Copyright

Copyright © 2019 by Dover Publications, Inc.

All rights reserved.

Bibliographical Note

This Dover edition, first published in 2019, is an unabridged republication of the work published by Sidgwick and Jackson, London, in 1945 and reprinted by Dover in 2002. A new introductory Note has been specially prepared for this Dover edition.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Rilke, Rainer Maria, 1875–1926, author. | Snell, Reginald, translator, writer of introduction.

Title: Letters to a young poet / Rainer Maria Rilke ; translated, with an introduction and commentary by Reginald Snell.

Other titles: Briefe an einen jungen Dichter. English

Description: Mineola, New York : Dover Publications, 2019. | Series: Dover thrift editions | This Dover edition, first published in 2019, is an unabridged republication of the work published by Sidgwick and Jackson, London, in 1945 and reprinted by Dover in 2002.

Identifiers: LCCN 2018041027| ISBN 9780486831855| ISBN 048683185X

Subjects: LCSH: Rilke, Rainer Maria, 1875–1926—Correspondence. | Kappus, Franz Xaver, 1883–1966—Correspondence. | Authors, German—20th century—Correspondence.

Classification: LCC PT2635.I65 Z53713 2019 | DDC 831/.912 [B]—dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018041027

Manufactured in the United States by LSC Communications

83185X01 2019

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Note

Born on December 4, 1875, in Prague—then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire—to a middle-class family in the German-speaking minority of that city, Rilke was a sensitive and introspective child. René (later Rainer) Maria Rilke experienced the fracturing of his parents’ marriage in 1884. He remained with his father, who believed that his son would benefit from the discipline and rigors of a military school, where he was sent from 1886 to 1891. An illness led to Rilke’s withdrawal, and he later attended a trade school. Thereafter, he attended a business school and studied with private tutors, and his interest in writing grew into a serious pursuit. He published his first book of poetry in 1894: Life and Songs (Leben und Lieder). Rilke attended universities in Prague, Munich, and Berlin (1896–1899), immersing himself in the immensely appealing worlds of art and literature.

In 1897, Rilke met the worldly Lou Andreas-Salomé (it was she who suggested that he change his name from René to Rainer), an author and psychoanalyst who had studied with Freud. She was fifteen years his senior and was the wife of a university professor. Rilke and Salomé formed a close bond, and their relationship—accepted by her husband, with whom Rilke and Lou traveled to Italy—lasted until his death. Salomé was the daughter of a Russian general, and she and Rilke made two visits to Russia, in 1899 and 1900, where Rilke met Tolstoy and other writers, as well as painters. He wholeheartedly embraced Russian culture, as well as its language, which he attempted to learn.

From 1900 to 1902, Rilke lived at Worpswede, an artists’ colony in eastern Germany, where he met Clara Westhoff, a sculptor. They married in 1901, and their daughter, Ruth, was born later that year. The couple lived apart for most of the time, while maintaining a cordial relationship. Rilke relocated to Paris in 1902 in order to write about the sculptor Auguste Rodin (Clara joined him there—she had studied with Rodin). He recounted some of his experiences in Paris—a city for which he had conflicted feelings—in novelistic form in The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge, published in 1910. Traveling around Europe, he continued to devote himself to his writing, and a major development occurred when he was invited by Princess Marie of Thurn und Taxis to stay as her guest at her castle in Duino, near Trieste. It was here, in 1922, that Rilke began his major poetic work, Duino Elegies. He did not complete the collection until ten years later, in 1922, and it was published in 1923 in Germany. Rilke also began his Sonnets to Orpheus in 1922, moved by the death of his daughter’s friend, Wera Knoop, at the age of nineteen. The work, dedicated to Wera’s memory, consists of fifty-five sonnets. The Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice forms the framework for the poems, evoking the tragic loss of Eurydice when Orpheus, permitted to lead his wife out of the underworld, loses her again when he turns around to glimpse her.

Toward the end of his life, Rilke wrote most of his poetry in French, influenced by Paul Valéry, whose work he translated into German. Rilke’s final years were difficult, as he had developed leukemia, which led to frequent hospitalizations. Rainer Maria Rilke died in 1926, at the age of fifty-one, at his chateau in Switzerland.

Letters to a Young Poet (Briefe an einen jungen Dichter) came about as an attempt by a nineteen-year-old aspiring poet, Franz Xaver Kappus (1883–1966), to solicit the advice of a much-more seasoned author, Rainer Maria Rilke. Kappus, coincidentally, was a student at the same military academy that Rilke had attended as a teenager near Vienna, and it was one of Kappus’s professors who, upon discovering his student reading a volume of Rilke, commented: So then the pupil René Rilke has become a poet. Kappus’s dilemma was whether to continue on in the military, or to follow his aspirations for a literary career. Ultimately, Kappus chose the military route, serving as an officer in the Austro-Hungarian Army. However, he did not abandon writing, working as a journalist and writing poetry, short stories, and novels, as well as screenplays.

The translator of the present volume states that Rilke was the postal confessor . . . of a large number of young people. Franz Xaver Kappus first contacted Rilke in 1902, sending him his poetry in the hope of receiving a critique from the popular author. Kappus states in Introduction by the Young Poet: My verses came to be accompanied by a covering letter in which I revealed myself without reserve as I have never done before or since to another human being. Kappus did, indeed, receive a reply from Rilke; he collected ten of Rilke’s letters in Letters to a Young Poet, which was published in 1929 (Kappus did not include his own letters), three years after Rilke’s death.

In his first letter, written to Kappus from Paris in February 1903, Rilke offers positive comments, but continues, All the same, the poems are not yet anything in themselves. He urges Kappus to cease asking others for their opinions—looking outwards—as it is most important that he go inside himself. According to Rilke, if the aspiring poet can affirm that he must write, then he ought to continue his efforts, avoiding familiar forms such as love poems in favor of depicting his own, unique sorrows and desires. Throughout the remaining nine letters in the collection, Rilke shares his literary interests; recommends solitude to enable personal growth; again urges Kappus to "pay attention to what

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