Letters to a Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke: book review

Letters to a Young Poet (1929, this edition 2013) is a series of 10 letters that German poet Rainer Maria Rilke (1875-1926) wrote to an aspiring young poet, between the years 1903-1908.

Rilke was in Paris from 1902, writing a book about the sculptor Auguste Rodin (who sculpted The Thinker and The Kiss).

Rilke was 27 years old when he responded to 19-year-old Franz Xaver Kappus who was asking for poetic guidance. Written to provide hope and inspiration, as well as his own insight of living in a harsh world, the letters continue to provide inspiration to all readers. Nine of the letters were written in the space of 18 months.

The letters are long and cover techniques such as irony, alienation, futility, love, and consciousness pushed to the extreme …

Accompanying the letters, at the end of the book, is a commentary on the letters, that enlighten readers on the historical context of the times. This thin book is contextually interesting as well as being a heartening account of being a poet in difficult times.

MARTINA NICOLLSis an international aid and development consultant, and the authorof:- Similar But Different in the Animal Kingdom(2017), The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).

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