Book Review: Letters to a Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke

LETTERS TO A YOUNG POET

by Rainer Maria Rilke

Dover Thrift Edition

58 pp

The young poet corresponds with the master writer Rainer Maria Rilke to get advice; he wants Rilke to comment upon his work.  Instead of critiquing the young poet’s work, Rilke dodges his request. Write what you know, he tells the young poet. Rilke advises his young poet correspondent not to search for the answers now because answers cannot be given if the young poet really does not know the true questions that he ought to ask. It is always a matter of experiencing anything and everything—and that is where the true questions reside. Live the questions now, he advises him. The only assertion of great importance is that Rilke lived life thoroughly enough to use his powerful tools of observation to make an everlasting impact. Rilke writes what is known to him and what was experienced by him firsthand—and that is the the first rule all writers must observe and abide by—to have the courage to write what you know to be true.