After a long time wanting to read Rilke, I decided to start with Letters to a young poet and let me tell you, it was the best choice. Letters to a young poet is a brief but beautiful book written by Rainer Maria Rilke. The book is a compilation of ten letters that he sent to Franz Kappus, who was seeking for the advice of the author. The letters went over for six years and were written over different countries.
This is such a great book for those who want to start writing because in those letters Rilke advises Kappus on how a poet should approach to subjects such as love, life, pain and childhood, and all those experiences that affects the writing and the world of art: “In [Rilke´s] poetry and his life it shows a sacred reverence for all that we are, for everything we could be” (H. Ossott, 2005, p. 91).
Also, this book let us study and understand Rilke´s writing process and the ideas that appear in his famous poetry. Here are some of my favorite quotes from the book, and I hope it makes you want to read Letters to a young poet and look further the work of the writer:
- “I am touched by your beautiful anxiety about life, even more than I was in Paris, where everything echoes and fades away differently because of the excessive noise that makes things tremble”.
- “I believe that love remains strong and intense in your memory because it was your first deep aloneness and the first inner work that you did on life”.
References:
Ossott, H. (2005) How to read poetry. Bid & co. editor.
Rilke, R. M. Letters to a young poet. Edited by Ray Soulard, Jr.