4.22 AVERAGE

reflective slow-paced
fast-paced

Didn't expect to like it so much :)

emotional fast-paced

sure ill give this a 5. this was such a romantic, poignant, philosophical read. i have many words to describe all my thoughts but cannot collate them into something cohesive. but i will say this, if you are a creative person - read this book. it's not even really a book, more a novella. rainer maria rilke was an austrian poet and novelist (irl... all the letters in this letters to a young poet were written and sent by the real rainer maria rilke) and young franz xaver kappus approached him with his poetry and asked him to critique it.
the letters that follow took me through rilke's thoughts on creativity, religion, love, childhood, sorrow, and becoming who you were always meant to be. this book is very short, but i made a lot of annotations which will not fit in this goodreads review. i will leave some thoughts that i hope i come back to. reading this book was really insightful and i always want to remember what i read.

"for it is not indolence alone which causes human relationships to repeat themselves, from case to case, with such unspeakable monotony and inconsequences, but fear of some new, unforseeable experience to which one believes oneself unequal"

"the future is motionless, my dear kappus, but we move in infinite space. How should it not be hard for us?"

"your innermost experience is worthy of being wholly loved, you must somehow work with it, and not waste too much time and courage justifying your attitude towards others."

"so, my dear sir, love solitude, and endure the pain it brings with lovely sounds of lament."

be lucky i have only picked four to put here. to be fair most of the annotations are long as fuck and I'm lazy and ceebs typing them here. something ironic/interesting/funny about this book is that rilke was writing all the time to kappus (whom we only ever see one of his poems) and kapuus collated and published this book which i think is the most remarkable thing he could have done.


Ces lettres mêlent parfaitement philosophie et poésie et donnent l'impression que Rilke s'adresse aussi à nous, nous rassure et nous prend par la main pour traverser les doutes de la vie.

Letters to a Young Poet is beautiful. It is a call to seek out what is true and to live deeply. I enjoyed every minute of reading it.

this has got to be my favorite book EVER

Beautiful and thought provoking

I would probably give this four stars for the content, but due to the misspelled name of the author, this edition gets a three.

Overall, for the price, it's worth the content. Brilliant letters.