Letters to a Young Poet
 

Letters to a Young Poet

by Rainer Maria Rilke

A beloved classic of writerly wisdom.
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... (read more)

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Rebecca M
  • Rated 5 stars

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...

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Community:
  • Rated 4.385965 stars
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  • Rated 4.545455 stars
 

Newest Comments

  • Elizabeth

    elizabeth said:

    I carry this book with me almost every day and if you have every read Running with Scissors - well, I "bible dip" with this book.

    posted Wednesday, March 12 2008
  • mtfrs

    mtfrs said:

    This is a must read! It's a book worth going back to time and time again. Best read in portions then ruminated upon until it becomes part of one's reality. :)

    posted Friday, September 28 2007
  • luctardif

    luctardif said:

    My absolute favorite book. Every single artist in the world, whatever the field, should read this one! I bought it and gave it more than 10 times.

    posted Monday, September 17 2007 ( | view 1 reply )
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