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A review by sydsnot71
Letters to a Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke
3.0
I have finally read Letters to a Young Poet. I have heard it spoken of in awed tones by many a reader and while I have underlined and tagged many a quote I don't think it has blown me away in the way I expected, although 'Letter from a Young Worker' which is included in this Penguin Classic I did find a really effecting.
I haven't yet written up all my notes or let this sit, which is bad I know and I suspect - no, I know - that Rilke would disapprove: "There is nothing less apt to touch a work of art than critical words: all we end up with there is more or less felicitous misunderstandings." (p5) I should let this work percolate and see how it effects me over time.
I think though this is an unfair book to judge Rilke on, despite its popularity. These letters were never meant to be published and they are advice given to a young man - although Rilke at this point was hardly 'old' nor was he at the peak of his fame. For me, if you want to have your mind blown by Rilke, you should read The Duino Elegies or Sonnets to Orpheus. But I fear Rilke, like Rumi, has been annexed by the self-help/bro lit brigade. Quotes torn bleeding from their context and used for memes or Ted Talks. Neither deserves such a fate.
But Rilke is so much more than Letters to a Young Poet. After I've written this and finished my actual day job I'm going to go through the nearly forty tabs and put them into a word document and that process will help me think further on what I've read. Reading this has also done two things. It has made me want to re-read The Duino Elegies/Sonnets to Orpheus and to finally pick up 'You Must Change Your Life: The Story of Rainer Maria Rilke and Auguste Rodin' by Rachel Corbett. I bought it after going to the British Museum for 'Rodin & The Art of Ancient Greece' in 2018. Rodin gets named checked in this book: "If I had to say whom I have learnt anything about the nature of artistic creation, about its profundity and eternity, there are only two names I can give Jacobsen's [Jens Peter Jacobson, Danish novelist], the great, great poet, and Auguste Rodin the sculpture who has no equal among all artist now alive." (p11)
Now, Jens Peter Jacobson, is - I wager - barely known in the English speaking world now except through his mention by Rilke, although some of his work is available in English. I suspect he's one of those European writer's whose reputation is still mighty on 'the continent' and ignored in the UK where a certain pride and prejudice applies to non-Anglo writers. Rodin, however, is still a name to be conjured with. Hence the Exhibition at the British Museum. I shall read Rachel Corbett's book now. I'll read Niels Lyhne, by Jacobson too.
Let's see how I feel about this tomorrow. I feel his sounds like I am damning it with faint praise and perhaps I am. Perhaps I held too high expectations for it. Perhaps I'm too old at nearly 52 for this to have the impact that it might of had if I'd read it at 19 or 21.
We shall see.
I haven't yet written up all my notes or let this sit, which is bad I know and I suspect - no, I know - that Rilke would disapprove: "There is nothing less apt to touch a work of art than critical words: all we end up with there is more or less felicitous misunderstandings." (p5) I should let this work percolate and see how it effects me over time.
I think though this is an unfair book to judge Rilke on, despite its popularity. These letters were never meant to be published and they are advice given to a young man - although Rilke at this point was hardly 'old' nor was he at the peak of his fame. For me, if you want to have your mind blown by Rilke, you should read The Duino Elegies or Sonnets to Orpheus. But I fear Rilke, like Rumi, has been annexed by the self-help/bro lit brigade. Quotes torn bleeding from their context and used for memes or Ted Talks. Neither deserves such a fate.
But Rilke is so much more than Letters to a Young Poet. After I've written this and finished my actual day job I'm going to go through the nearly forty tabs and put them into a word document and that process will help me think further on what I've read. Reading this has also done two things. It has made me want to re-read The Duino Elegies/Sonnets to Orpheus and to finally pick up 'You Must Change Your Life: The Story of Rainer Maria Rilke and Auguste Rodin' by Rachel Corbett. I bought it after going to the British Museum for 'Rodin & The Art of Ancient Greece' in 2018. Rodin gets named checked in this book: "If I had to say whom I have learnt anything about the nature of artistic creation, about its profundity and eternity, there are only two names I can give Jacobsen's [Jens Peter Jacobson, Danish novelist], the great, great poet, and Auguste Rodin the sculpture who has no equal among all artist now alive." (p11)
Now, Jens Peter Jacobson, is - I wager - barely known in the English speaking world now except through his mention by Rilke, although some of his work is available in English. I suspect he's one of those European writer's whose reputation is still mighty on 'the continent' and ignored in the UK where a certain pride and prejudice applies to non-Anglo writers. Rodin, however, is still a name to be conjured with. Hence the Exhibition at the British Museum. I shall read Rachel Corbett's book now. I'll read Niels Lyhne, by Jacobson too.
Let's see how I feel about this tomorrow. I feel his sounds like I am damning it with faint praise and perhaps I am. Perhaps I held too high expectations for it. Perhaps I'm too old at nearly 52 for this to have the impact that it might of had if I'd read it at 19 or 21.
We shall see.