Letters to a Young Poet
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Letters to a Young Poet
by Authors:
Stephen Mitchell , Maria Rainer Rilke
Released: 04 December, 2001
ISBN: 0679642323
Hardcover
Sales Rank: 7,202
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List price:
$14.95
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$10.47
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| Book > Letters to a Young Poet > Customer Reviews: |
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Average Customer Rating: 
Letters to a Young Poet >
Customer Review #1:
 full of wisdom and insight
I had already read this book a couple of months ago and was moved by Rilkes incredible wisdom. And just a few days ago, while I was preparing for a philosophy exam, I chanced upon this book once more and, seeing certain parallels between Rilkes words and other philosophers, truly understood and admired Rilke and his perspective on life. Rilke speaks of dragons in our lives... who could be princesses in disguise "...waiting to see us act, just once, with beauty and courage. Perhaps everything that frightens us is, in its deepest essence, something helpless that wants our love..." This is one book that should be constantly reread and pondered on by anyone who wishes to move towards the true meaning of what it is to be human...
Letters to a Young Poet >
Customer Review #2:
Insightful and thoughtful
This translation of Rainer Maria Rilkes advice to a young would-be poet, Franz Kappus, helps to affirm his standing as one of humanitys most insightful artists in any medium, in any language.Rilke appears to offer advice not so much to help Kappus understand our world, as how best to respond to it (by "world" I mean our mental world as well as our social world). Rilke thoughtfully discusses how an artists life involves great discipline and patient effort in order to reinforce what is positive and leave behind what is negative. This advice is universal and can apply to any religion, discipline, or intent.
Its hard to think how one could not find a useful and valid insight on each page of this gentle work. Everyone will have some line or two which stands out as their favorite. If you are at all interested in Rilke, or in responding to Life, this book should be wonderful for you.
Letters to a Young Poet >
Customer Review #3:
A must read if you want to be a writer
Letters to a Young Poet has become a classic since it first appeared back in the 1930s. Most everyone knows what the book is and is about, so I wont bore you with lengthy explanations of such. Simply put - it is a collection of letters from Rilke to a poet that wrote asking Rilke to look at his poems and tell the youth what he thought of them.Every writer should read the first letter in the book. Every writer. It contains the most poignant statement he makes in all ten letters by far:
"This above all - ask yourself in the stillest hour of the night: must I write? Delve into yourself for a deep answer. And if this should be affirmative, if you may meet this earnest question with a strong and simple I must, then build your life according to this necessity..."
This advice, given to one writer a century ago, is still one of the truest wisdoms all writers must adhere to.
The other nine letters offer some other pearls of wisdom concerning writing and life - also a glimpse into the man that Rilke was. But they do not match the power and depth of that first letter, which I read and re-read every week. Committing it to memory.
Must I write? I must.
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Letters to a Young Poet >
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