inesgm's review against another edition
3.0
beautiful, loved the concept except the analysis at the end.
lilyreads's review against another edition
5.0
"What goes on in your innermost being is worthy of your whole love."
These letters are full of stunning, simple, enlightening advice, most of which is applicable to all young people (not just poets) trying to find their ways in the world.
These letters are full of stunning, simple, enlightening advice, most of which is applicable to all young people (not just poets) trying to find their ways in the world.
seanius's review against another edition
4.0
This is not so much a review, as an attempt to summarise my thoughts.
I am no expert on Rilke, although some of his poems rang a bell...
The edition I read was published by Penguin Classics, and contains a translation by C.Louth of both Letters to a Young Poet, and also the later Letter from a Young Worker.
There is an interesting afterword, and also detailed notes on Rilke's life and also the other letters and poems and prose Rilke was concurrently working on.
__________________________________
First, Letters to a Young Poet.
The text deals with the universal dilemma faced by the young: the necessity to sacrifice unlimited Potential, for limited Actualization.
The young must at some point *become something*, which involves the pain of sacrificing the other options (at least, given today's greater life expectancy and opportunities, sacrificing in the short term).
In this case, the dilemma is that between dedicating one's life to Art (poetry) versus a practical career in the military.
Rilke dishes out some sensible advice, basically following a practical 'middle way'. Artistically, he recommends 'isolation' and pursuing 'depth'. However, it is not clear that Rilke himself took this advice to heart.
Also, from the afterword, it seems that Rilke was not fully ingenuous with his correspondent: Rilke himself, being a little further on the path, had received different advice and example from Rodin: to not neglect Surface in the pursuit of Depth, and also the practicalities of habit and pursuing a workmanlike attitude to producing art. Rodin, a revolutionary sculptor of all the bodily parts, celebrated the human body as it is, in all its wonderful beauty and vulgarity. So, we need not only depth, but also the 'surface' of the senses.
A further inconsistency, is that whilst Rilke recommends the necessary solitude (even amongst the crowd) necessary for creative work, he omits to mention the great energy Rilke dedicated to correspondence with his peers: Rilke was a very active letter writer (at least 1 letter every day) and this was both an outlet and an impetus for his more 'artistic' writing.
It seems to me that Rilke did not himself accept the advice that he was recommending to the young poet: Rilke (perhaps being more extraordinarily talented) repeatedly refused to compromise his pursuit of great work: never surrendering to what Engels called 'vile commerce', Rilke seemed to have many a sponsor if not patron (in French, a boss). Rilke in his individuality and stubbornness, even fell out with Rodin (although they later reconciled).
So, on reading these letters, a part of me cannot help judging Rilke's character: he neglected his child, abandoning them to his partner's parents, and he was less than fully honest with his fully-trusting letter writer. However, there is indeed a genuine warmth and caring tone to his letters.
I do not know how easy it is to present Rilke as a feminist, although he does seem to value the heretofore unrealized potential of women: writing of when "women ... purify their truest natures from the distorting influences of the other sex". An interesting part of the letters, not remarked on by the translator, is where he seems to anticipate today's crisis of men, at the onset of the rise of women: "men, who today do not yet feel it approaching, will be taken by surprise". This seems to anticipate the difficulties of the fatherless, uninitiated 'nice guys' that Robert Bly wrote of, decades later.
__________________________________
Next: Letter from a Young Worker.
This is a later text, composed by a more mature Rilke. The letter itself is a frame (the 'young worker' is actually a dead friend, the Belgian poet Verhaeren).
The main theme is the problem that Christianity created out of sex (perhaps as a reaction to the historical degradations of Rome).
Secondly, Rainer sees Jesus as a kind of prophet, using the cross as a pointing symbol (pointing to God), which with the Church unfortunately became an end in itself. And so, Christ rather than redeeming, became a kind of crucifier, ever punishing and shaming us all for our bodily form.
Following his convictions, Rainer in work contemporary to this letter, celebrates the earthly and the here-and-now (Duino elegies, Orpheus sonnets).
Whilst it is easy to agree that the Church discouraged celebration of the here-and-now (and consequences may include the disparaging of the earth, of nature, of people's time, as mere money-measurable resources), the idea that Jesus was not an advocate of the here-and-now is not completely supportable.
Other commentators on this topic, such as J.B.Peterson, interpret Jesus' 'Kingdom of God', as the actual 'here-and-now', not so different from Buddha's 'presence': the Kingdom is open to all, at this moment: it is not, as the Church presented, some strange God beyond a non-reachable Orient.
So, perhaps Rilke is correct to attack the Church on this count, of diminishing the bodily Present, but he is not, on this topic, correct in his critique of the original practice of Jesus ?
__________________________________
To conclude: Having read these texts, I realize that there is much that I either do not know, or fully understand.
Next, I would like to read more of Rilke's poetry: the translator recommends "Orpheus: A version of Rilke's" by Don Paterson. I would also like to learn more of Rodin's habits of work.
Later, I would like to return to these letters ...
I am no expert on Rilke, although some of his poems rang a bell...
The edition I read was published by Penguin Classics, and contains a translation by C.Louth of both Letters to a Young Poet, and also the later Letter from a Young Worker.
There is an interesting afterword, and also detailed notes on Rilke's life and also the other letters and poems and prose Rilke was concurrently working on.
__________________________________
First, Letters to a Young Poet.
The text deals with the universal dilemma faced by the young: the necessity to sacrifice unlimited Potential, for limited Actualization.
The young must at some point *become something*, which involves the pain of sacrificing the other options (at least, given today's greater life expectancy and opportunities, sacrificing in the short term).
In this case, the dilemma is that between dedicating one's life to Art (poetry) versus a practical career in the military.
Rilke dishes out some sensible advice, basically following a practical 'middle way'. Artistically, he recommends 'isolation' and pursuing 'depth'. However, it is not clear that Rilke himself took this advice to heart.
Also, from the afterword, it seems that Rilke was not fully ingenuous with his correspondent: Rilke himself, being a little further on the path, had received different advice and example from Rodin: to not neglect Surface in the pursuit of Depth, and also the practicalities of habit and pursuing a workmanlike attitude to producing art. Rodin, a revolutionary sculptor of all the bodily parts, celebrated the human body as it is, in all its wonderful beauty and vulgarity. So, we need not only depth, but also the 'surface' of the senses.
A further inconsistency, is that whilst Rilke recommends the necessary solitude (even amongst the crowd) necessary for creative work, he omits to mention the great energy Rilke dedicated to correspondence with his peers: Rilke was a very active letter writer (at least 1 letter every day) and this was both an outlet and an impetus for his more 'artistic' writing.
It seems to me that Rilke did not himself accept the advice that he was recommending to the young poet: Rilke (perhaps being more extraordinarily talented) repeatedly refused to compromise his pursuit of great work: never surrendering to what Engels called 'vile commerce', Rilke seemed to have many a sponsor if not patron (in French, a boss). Rilke in his individuality and stubbornness, even fell out with Rodin (although they later reconciled).
So, on reading these letters, a part of me cannot help judging Rilke's character: he neglected his child, abandoning them to his partner's parents, and he was less than fully honest with his fully-trusting letter writer. However, there is indeed a genuine warmth and caring tone to his letters.
I do not know how easy it is to present Rilke as a feminist, although he does seem to value the heretofore unrealized potential of women: writing of when "women ... purify their truest natures from the distorting influences of the other sex". An interesting part of the letters, not remarked on by the translator, is where he seems to anticipate today's crisis of men, at the onset of the rise of women: "men, who today do not yet feel it approaching, will be taken by surprise". This seems to anticipate the difficulties of the fatherless, uninitiated 'nice guys' that Robert Bly wrote of, decades later.
__________________________________
Next: Letter from a Young Worker.
This is a later text, composed by a more mature Rilke. The letter itself is a frame (the 'young worker' is actually a dead friend, the Belgian poet Verhaeren).
The main theme is the problem that Christianity created out of sex (perhaps as a reaction to the historical degradations of Rome).
Secondly, Rainer sees Jesus as a kind of prophet, using the cross as a pointing symbol (pointing to God), which with the Church unfortunately became an end in itself. And so, Christ rather than redeeming, became a kind of crucifier, ever punishing and shaming us all for our bodily form.
Following his convictions, Rainer in work contemporary to this letter, celebrates the earthly and the here-and-now (Duino elegies, Orpheus sonnets).
Whilst it is easy to agree that the Church discouraged celebration of the here-and-now (and consequences may include the disparaging of the earth, of nature, of people's time, as mere money-measurable resources), the idea that Jesus was not an advocate of the here-and-now is not completely supportable.
Other commentators on this topic, such as J.B.Peterson, interpret Jesus' 'Kingdom of God', as the actual 'here-and-now', not so different from Buddha's 'presence': the Kingdom is open to all, at this moment: it is not, as the Church presented, some strange God beyond a non-reachable Orient.
So, perhaps Rilke is correct to attack the Church on this count, of diminishing the bodily Present, but he is not, on this topic, correct in his critique of the original practice of Jesus ?
__________________________________
To conclude: Having read these texts, I realize that there is much that I either do not know, or fully understand.
Next, I would like to read more of Rilke's poetry: the translator recommends "Orpheus: A version of Rilke's" by Don Paterson. I would also like to learn more of Rodin's habits of work.
Later, I would like to return to these letters ...
thedippydippydolphin's review against another edition
5.0
A lovely collection of correspondences written from teacher to student,master to apprentice, a wiser self to an inexperienced self not so long ago, from Rainer Maria Rilke to Franz Xaver Kappus. The insights provided in these letters from Rilke are masterfully written and thought-provoking. They speak about life and all its complexities in the simplest, yet most meaningful terms. I don't agree with every view Rilke expresses in this book; however, that doesn't diminish the value in the slightest. This is a wonderful book to slowly read under a shaded tree with the grass billowing around you as you contemplate all around you. Please take your time reading this book and carefully consider the words that Rilke writes.
littlebookjockey's review against another edition
5.0
This book is beautiful, and I wish I had read it sooner--only I don't think I would have understood it or related to it half as much as I do now.
ellies_edition's review against another edition
5.0
I originally read Letter's to a Young Poet in my undergrad, and in this version I loved getting to read Kappus' correspondence along with RM Rilke's. What young poet reads this and does not feel a sense of themselves in this somewhere?