Letters to a young poet
by Rainer Maria Rilke · first published 1656
75% recommend25% neutral
Why HN recommends it
Short collection of ten letters offering a mentor's calm, personal advice on handling criticism, solitude and creative life; readers return to it for its wisdom and for comfort in hard times.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
Letters written to F.X. Kappus during the years 1903-1908. Chronicle of Rilkes's life for the years 1903-1908 (p. 81-123).
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…I’d occasionally dismiss as a nuisance; Pain Free and Pain Free at Your PC by Pete Egoscue, because it completely changed the way I understood posture, pain, and how repetition influences my body; and Letters to a Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke, because it taught me how despite big changes in technology and society and way of living, very little changes when it comes to our personal struggles and concerns; Man’s Search…
on “Ask HN: Best books you read in the past decade?” ↗…dealing with the pressure of criticism should read a very small book that contains 10 letters written by Rainer Maria Rilke to an aspiring poet who went to the same German military school he went to called Letters to a Young Poet. [1] It starts with: "I cannot discuss your verses; for any attempt at criticism would be foreign to me. Nothing touches a work of art so little as words of criticism: they always result in more or…
on “How Being Named the 'Best New Restaurant in America' Hurt My Business” ↗…The aloneness I have had all these years has been so important to my inner self, where all things stem from, that I can't say I would have had it otherwise. I suppose that's why I tend to gift Rilke's Letters to a Young Poet to friends, i.e. "But your solitude will be a hold and home for you even amid very unfamiliar conditions and from there you will find all your ways." Or maybe that's why I admire Tarkovsky, i.e. "I don’t…
on “Why is it hard to make friends over 30? (2012)” ↗"Letters To A Young Poet" by Rainer Maria Rilke. There is a new edition of this work that now includes the letters the young poet wrote in response, long thought to be lost. I plan to pick that one up in addition to my Stephen…
on “Ask HN: Book under 100 pages that changed your life the most?” ↗…alongside "Agents of Dreamland", is rather short and great for getting through in a couple sittings. It's all about taking on an entity that you actively can't remember the existence of. Non-Fiction: "Letters to a Young Poet" - This is a collection of ten letters sent from the poet Rainer Maria Rilke to a younger aspiring poet in the early 1900s. As a creative that sometimes struggles with the whole "what am I doing this…
on “Ask HN: Books you read in 2023 and recommend for 2024” ↗…moment to just forget how your life has worked so far, and try to look at what your future might be. If you don't feel like talking to someone, I think your best friend might be a book. I would recommend Letters to a Young Poet by Rilke
on “Goodbye?” ↗It’s not hard philosophy but I recommend Letters to a Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke
on “The hypersane are among us, if only we are prepared to look” ↗If we're talking about books that contain a lot of wisdom,Imight suggest reading 'letters to a young poet' by Rainer Maria Rilke. It left a lasting impression and I get back to it from time to time. Anyone that wants to get a teaser can watch: https://youtu.be/F5tZ8X-EnAg
on “How to Read Self-Help” ↗The new translation of "Letters To A Young Poet", which restores the half of the conversation that had previously never seen print in English before, is a must-read. (ISBN 978-1-63149-767-4)
on “Ask HN: Great Books from your 2021 Reading List?” ↗…about things that interest you. Use a pencil to draw lightly on the pages around the passages you like. Try a book like Think on These Things by Jiddu Krishnamurti and A Village Life by Louise Glück and Letters to a Young Poet by Ranier Maria Rilke. Always work on your own projects, at least in your paper notebook or in your mind or on your computer, even when at work working for someone else. Don’t worry about what other…
on “Ask HN: Are you as passionate as you used to be?” ↗If you are reading books, "Letters to a Young Poet" is a good one on the subject.[0] When I was 17 I volunteered in an after school center in a housing project in Lower Manhattan and the other teens in the program became my circle of friends. After moving…
on “Loneliness at 19, How to Cope?” ↗I really loved Rilke's Letters to a Young Poet! Very succinct. Currently working through The Tale of Genji (slowly) and Play It as It Lays (because I will read anything by Joan Didion).
on “Ask HN: What are you reading?” ↗It’s just an excerpt and not applicable to some but Rainer Maria Rilke’s Letters to a Young Poet has a good if longer bit: “Are not all careers the same? Filled with demands and people filled with animosity towards the individual. At the same time absorbing the hatred of those who have silently…
on “Microsoft offers mass buyouts for roughly a quarter of its workforce” ↗…cripples people's souls and makes people's mistakes/problems bigger than they actually are. Though I recall a year ago, struggling alone and having no hope. What guided me towards today? Rainer Maria Rilke’s Letters to a Young Poet. Here are a few quotes from the book: "Everything seems to me to have its just emphasis; and after all I do only want to advise you to keep growing quietly and seriously throughout your whole development;…
on “The importance of dumb mistakes in college” ↗letters to a young poet ~rilke
on “Ask HN: What books changed the way you think about almost everything?” ↗