About the book
Across several years in the early 1900s, the poet Rainer Maria Rilke wrote ten letters to Franz Xaver Kappus, a 19-year-old cadet training as an officer at the Theresian Military Academy. Kappus had asked him to judge his poems and was torn between a literary career and the army. Rilke declined to critique the work, urged him to stop reading criticism and trust his own inner judgment, and wrote instead about the ways a poet ought to love, feel and search for truth. The letters also touch on loneliness, atheism and career choices. Kappus compiled and published them after Rilke's death, and they shed light on the ideas behind Rilke's own poetry.
Estella Ng, founder of Ripple Root, said the book is everything to her and that she keeps returning to one of its lines to check whether she is living a full life. Todd Henry, founder of Accidental Creative, described it as a book of mentorship for young artists.
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This book has 2 recommendations
Estella Ng (Founder/Ripple Root)
Letters to a Young Poet - it is everything. [...] This line in Letters to a Young Poet “If your daily life seems poor, do not blame it; blame yourself, tell yourself that you are not poet enough to call forth its riches" is an important one to me. I constantly go back to this to evaluate if I have been living a full life.
Todd Henry (Founder of Accidental Creative)
A book of mentorship for young artists.
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