Reviews - Letters to a Young Poet

6.02k reviews for:

Letters to a Young Poet

Rainer Maria Rilke

4.22 AVERAGE

dogyrs's review against another edition

4.0

a warm, comforting quick read to end the year :)

some quotes i want to be able to go back to, among many others:

It is so everywhere; but that is no reason for fear or sorrow; if there is nothing in common between you and other people, try being close to things, they will not desert you; there are the nights still and the winds that go through the trees and across many lands; among things and with the animals everything is still full of happening, in which you may participate; and children are still the way you were as a child, sad like that and happy,—and if you think of your childhood you live among them again, among the solitary children, and the grownups are nothing, and their dignity has no value.

For this reason the sadness too passes: the new thing in us, the added thing, has entered into our heart, has gone into its inmost chamber and is not even there any more,—is already in our blood. And we do not learn what it was. We could easily be made to believe that nothing has happened, and yet we have changed, as a house changes into which a guest has entered.

[...] it is always what I have already said: always the wish that you may find patience enough in yourself to endure, and simplicity enough to believe; that you may acquire more and more confidence in that which is difficult, and in your solitude among others. And for the rest, let life happen to you. Believe me: life is right, in any case.

So you must not be frightened, dear Mr. Kappus, if a sadness rises up before you larger than any you have ever seen; if a restiveness, like light and cloud-shadows, passes over your hands and over all you do. You must think that something is happening with you, that life has not forgotten you, that it holds you in its hand; it will not let you fall.

mochiyuki's review against another edition

4.0

hopeful informative inspiring lighthearted reflective medium-paced

jane710's review against another edition

5.0

"believe in a love which is stored up for you like an inheritance, and trust that in this love there is a strength and a benediction out of whose sphere you do not need to issue even if your journey is a long one"
the book offers not only quotations but also life lessons. it was the first book in which I highlighted more bits than i could recall. there are lessons and suggestions that a 300-page book cannot deliver in the same way, close to your soul
i loved it

bsmiddy94's review against another edition

5.0

hopeful inspiring reflective slow-paced

sophiecrt's review against another edition

5.0

Mind blown. I’d read it 10 years ago in French but the English translation somehow resonates so much more.

How can a few letters written over a century ago be so actual, and necessary?

How the fuck does one talk about feminism, depression, trauma, spirituality and loneliness so profoundly, and yet with the casual detachment of a correspondance?

Definitely joining the select club of the few books I re-read every couple years.