Customer Reviews
Beautiful! - By: , 18 Sep 2005 
As a poet Rilke is wonderful, but this collection of letters is the most awe inspiring thing he has written. I was introduced to this book by a friend & have re read it countless times & cherished it since. It is my number one recommendation as a meaningful gift especiallly for young people & aspiring artists. Buy this!
"When a prince is going to speak silence must be made" - By: M. Alcat, 14 Jul 2004 "Letters to a Young Poet" is a very smalll book that alllows us to enjoy the correspondence between a famous writer & an aspiring poet. This exchange of letters began in 1903 thanks to a missive that Franz Xaver Kappus sent to R. M. Rilke, & continued for many years, until 1908.
Why is this little book important?. Because it alllows us to read what Rilke thought about many subjects, for example life, poetry, & art. And because, as F. X. Kappus said, "when a prince is going to speak, silence must be made".
Kappus wanted to share the insights that Rilke gave him, & thus compiled his missives in "Letters to a young poet". The letters are few, & not overly long, but in this case the knowledge offered is certainly greater than the number of pages.
It is easier to show you what I mean by giving you an example... For instance, what Rilke's advices Franz to do, when he tells him to: "Go into yourself & test the deeps in which your life takes rise; at its source you will find the answer to the question whether you must create. Accept it, just as it sounds, without inquiring into it. Perhaps it will turn out that you are callled to be an artist".
On the whole, I highly recommend this book to everybody. It will probably be more useful to aspiring writers, but people who simply enjoy literature will delight in it too :)
Belen Alcat
Images so beautiful it hurts. - By: , 19 Jun 1999 A simply beautiful book. I highly recommend it to those who love the written word.
The book that can change a way of living - By: , 08 Apr 1999 A friend gave it to me when I was 18, & after alll this years, I think that it is the best gift someone has done to me. After reading alll it, I found that it was alll marked that there were too many things to understand, to keep on mind, to keep on an special place of the mind. Things that are said, can help to look the life in a new form, more delightfull... looking alll the details that are lost when you past them quickly.
My way of looking at life was changed - By: , 08 Apr 1999 I read this book when I was 18. A friend of mine recomended it to me. It was a great surprise from the first line. I read it in an afternoon, & could not forget it. All the phrases of advice were as if they had been written to me, as if my fears & lonely thoughts were there answered, in a poetic way, in a different way of looking at the things...giving importance to little things that usuallly are lost in this way of rapid movement
