1. LETTERS TO A YOUNG POET
Rainer Maria Rilke

2. TITLE OF THE LITERARY WORK: Letters to a Young Poet
WRITER: Rainer Maria Rilke
GENRE: Prose/Creative Nonfiction
LITERARY FORM: Letters

3. Rainer Maria Rilke
(1875–1926)
René Karl Wilhelm Johann Josef Maria Rilke
Bohemian-Austrian poet and novelist
“Widely recognized as one of the most lyrically intense German-language poets”, writing in both verse and highly lyrical prose
He published his first book of poems, Life and Songs, at age 19.
His best-known works include: Duino Elegies (poetry collections), Sonnets to Orpheus, The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Briggethe (semi- autobiographical novel); and Letters to a Young Poet (a collection of ten letters that was published after his death under the title).

4. [The Context of the Literary Work]
Rilke’s letters were written over an interval of a number of years from 1902 to 1908.
He was 27 when he wrote the first letter.
Rilke was also traveling other states, which took him to respond to Kappus’ letter quite longer.
Although his journeys seem to restrict him to write longer letters to Kappus, it didn’t stop him to write. As a matter of fact, he was able to share to Kappus how the beneficence of his journeys—from the vast plains, and seas; and how rainy and brighter days—made him well.

5. [SUMMARY / PLOT]
The book is a collection of ten letters written by Rilke to a young poet who initially sought for writing advice, but ended up learning greater deal about life. The letters talk about so many themes, including the importance of knowing one’s self deeply—in solitude, in joy, and in pain; the past and the future— and understanding everything that life has to offer.

6. [SETTING]
Rilke, who travels from places to places, wrote these letters in states he has gone to, like Paris, Rome and Viagerrio in Italy, Germany, and Sweden.

7. [POINT OF VIEW]
Rilke’s viewpoint encompasses almost every aspect of life, not just in writing alone. In his first letter, we get to see how he discouraged Kappus in reading criticisms for ‘no one can advise you and help you— no one. There is only one thing you should do, go into yourself’, which later in the letters, solitude, creativity, relationships, the importance of living one’s life, and everything that affects the development and maturity of one’s work, is discussed.

8. [CONFLICT]
Through Rilke’s letters we are given hints about Kappus, although his letters were not included in the book. It seems that the Young Poet, aside from seeking writing advice, is also experiencing personal crisis and with his career—between writing and military service.

9. “A work of art is good if it has arisen out of necessity.”
[EXCERPTS]
“A work of art is good if it has arisen out of necessity.”
This means that one must create because he must; not to please others but to write for himself whatever it is that goes through his head or his feelings, his past, and things that his everyday life offers. And he must write because there is something to write about.

10. [EXCERPTS]
“Being an artist means: not numbering an counting, but ripening like a tree, which doesn’t force its sap, and stands confidently in the storms of spring…”
Rilke pointed out the importance of patience in becoming a writer. It takes deep and long moments of understanding everything that one experiences— the joy, pain, longing for the past and future—until everything is clear/understood.

11. [EXCERPTS]
“If you trust in Nature, in the small Things that hardly anyone sees and that can so suddenly become huge, immeasurable…”
Look around and try to see things in a different perspective. Because even the simplest things becomes extraordinary in the eyes of a keen observer.

12. [EXCERPTS]
“Most people have (with the help of conventions) turned their solutions towards what is easy and toward the easiest side of the easy; but it is clear that we must trust what is difficult…”
Difficult times make strong individuals. Rilke emphasized the importance of adversities that mold a person to become strong; that help him/her grow as a person.

13. [EXCERPTS]
“The only sadness that are dangerous and unhealthy are the ones that we carry around in public in order to drown them out with the noise; like diseases that are treated superficially and foolishly, they just withdraw and after a short interval break out again all the more terribly; and gather inside us and are life, are life that is unlived, rejected, lost, life that we can die of.”
Although sadness is a good thing as it necessitate people to write, at some point it becomes unhealthy, if concealed with other people’s noise. He compared it to a disease, that if not treated properly, will eventually worsen the worse. Only with the right medication (solitude), this disease will be cured.

14. [LITERARY WORK: THEMES]
Trust your own judgments.
In solitude, clarity/understanding is born.
Everything takes time and patience.
One must live his whole life
Some questions in life can only be answered deep within ourselves.

15. [WHAT MAKES THIS WORK “LITERATURE?”
Rilke’s Letters to a Young Poet is considered to be a work of literature as it has:
Artistry – employs metaphors, imagery, and exquisite use of language.
Intellectual Beauty – gives insight with regards to the nature and truth of the human life and nature.
Suggestiveness – evokes a deep understanding about life.
Spiritual Value – emphasized the value of solitude and depth in understanding oneself.
Permanence – one of the widely-discussed poet and literary work up to the present.
Universality – evokes universal concepts of human experiences, especially towards personal crisis.
Style – the author views life in a very deep, cryptic, and exquisite way; also has a very deep/heavy tone.