To Young Poets

Author: Rilke
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-10-01
Features: Letters to a Young Poet, which collects ten letters written by Rilke to the aspiring young poet Károly Kárpáti between 1903 and 1908. These letters are Rilke's reflections on creation, as well as answers to life's challenges such as hardship, solitude, and love, offering genuine spiritual guidance to young people. "We must accept hardship; all who live accept that everything in nature grows, defends, and expresses itself in its own way, and must survive, resisting all opposing forces." "Solitude grows; its growth is painful, like a boy's development, is sorrowful, like the beginning of spring. Do not be deceived by this. We need and only need: solitude, vast inner solitude. 'Turn inward,' meeting no one for a long time—this is what we must be able to do." "Love, very good; because love is hard. To love a person: perhaps this is the hardest, most significant thing given to us, the ultimate experiment and test, the highest work, and all other work is merely preparation for this." The appendix includes the translator's Rilke and selected works by Rilke such as On "Landscape" (), a novel excerpt Notes of Malté Laurids Brigge, and poems, offering a unique display of the poet's creative process.