Letters to a Young Poet

“Just as for a long time people were deceived about the movement of the sun, so we are still deceived about the movement of what is to come. The future is fixed, dear Mr Kappus, but we move around in infinite space.”

I find myself wanting to see the other side of this conversation more and more with each passing letter.

In his collection of letters, Rilke writes about the human experience. From doubt to love to fear, he provides comforting epithets on these universal emotions. I wasn't looking for comfort from his letters, but I found it.

It feels wrong to give this book a rating because it is something so personal. This is probably the best advice I've ever received and I'll (surely) pick this book again, because this is a piece of writing you keep discovering new things about every time you reread it.

This is just so freaking sweet, honestly

Read them over quite some time, one letter at a time. The religious parts did not grab me, I have been reading more interesting theories of that path of life in between the letters. The writing advice is quotable at times.

Must I write?

“Borgeby gård, Flãdie, Sweden, 12 August 1904” broke me in the best way possible.

4,5☆

there were parts that i REALLY enjoyed...

i liked the idea of training your negative traits (doubting for instance) into your most powerful traits (criticism or awareness instead), i loved the talk of fate coming from within us rather than into us, i liked the short discussion of genders and how we area actually all human (who'da'thunk??), and above all i adored the idea that art should come from necessity, you should be creating art because without art you should feel like you are to die.

but the rest of it was all murky and foggy and honestly kind of lost on me. i mean these are letters, correspondence between strangers turning into friends so there are going to be ramblings and nonsensical parts ESPECIALLY since we only have one side of a conversation going on.

but i really felt that during a lot of the higher order thinking philosophy parts my eyes kinda glazed over.

was it the most accessible read?? absolutely not. in fact if it were like 30+ pages longer i would have dnf'ed because it was downright challenging at parts.

but the parts i am walking away with??? i will hold with me for the rest of my life. :,)

3⁵

3.5
The writing was great and I enjoyed reading this most of the time, but overall I couldn't really connect with it.

Inspirational and spot on.

this was so good for my soul.

vey inspiring, i think everyone should read this.

This book just wasn't for me...

I know it's very Senior English Seminar of me, but I'll be damned if I don't find something new every time I re-read this

I guess it's famous for a reason. I was hoping for more writing advise.

“Works of art are infinitely solitary and nothing is less likely to reach them than criticism.”

Underlined nearly every single line. I will definitely be rereading this a few times a year, it's short, concentrated, and potent - necessary to read over and over again.

I just wish Kappus included his own letters.

I will need to run through this again in order to fully appreciate the layers of nuance contained in each message. I enjoyed the lessons, appreciate the writing, and want to ensure I fully capture what it has to offer.
Altogether, it was well worth my time.