A review by hannahb123
Letters to a Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke
5.0
sure ill give this a 5. this was such a romantic, poignant, philosophical read. i have many words to describe all my thoughts but cannot collate them into something cohesive. but i will say this, if you are a creative person - read this book. it's not even really a book, more a novella. rainer maria rilke was an austrian poet and novelist (irl... all the letters in this letters to a young poet were written and sent by the real rainer maria rilke) and young franz xaver kappus approached him with his poetry and asked him to critique it.
the letters that follow took me through rilke's thoughts on creativity, religion, love, childhood, sorrow, and becoming who you were always meant to be. this book is very short, but i made a lot of annotations which will not fit in this goodreads review. i will leave some thoughts that i hope i come back to. reading this book was really insightful and i always want to remember what i read.
"for it is not indolence alone which causes human relationships to repeat themselves, from case to case, with such unspeakable monotony and inconsequences, but fear of some new, unforseeable experience to which one believes oneself unequal"
"the future is motionless, my dear kappus, but we move in infinite space. How should it not be hard for us?"
"your innermost experience is worthy of being wholly loved, you must somehow work with it, and not waste too much time and courage justifying your attitude towards others."
"so, my dear sir, love solitude, and endure the pain it brings with lovely sounds of lament."
be lucky i have only picked four to put here. to be fair most of the annotations are long as fuck and I'm lazy and ceebs typing them here. something ironic/interesting/funny about this book is that rilke was writing all the time to kappus (whom we only ever see one of his poems) and kapuus collated and published this book which i think is the most remarkable thing he could have done.
the letters that follow took me through rilke's thoughts on creativity, religion, love, childhood, sorrow, and becoming who you were always meant to be. this book is very short, but i made a lot of annotations which will not fit in this goodreads review. i will leave some thoughts that i hope i come back to. reading this book was really insightful and i always want to remember what i read.
"for it is not indolence alone which causes human relationships to repeat themselves, from case to case, with such unspeakable monotony and inconsequences, but fear of some new, unforseeable experience to which one believes oneself unequal"
"the future is motionless, my dear kappus, but we move in infinite space. How should it not be hard for us?"
"your innermost experience is worthy of being wholly loved, you must somehow work with it, and not waste too much time and courage justifying your attitude towards others."
"so, my dear sir, love solitude, and endure the pain it brings with lovely sounds of lament."
be lucky i have only picked four to put here. to be fair most of the annotations are long as fuck and I'm lazy and ceebs typing them here. something ironic/interesting/funny about this book is that rilke was writing all the time to kappus (whom we only ever see one of his poems) and kapuus collated and published this book which i think is the most remarkable thing he could have done.