Letters to a Young Poet

When a young student at a military school mails some of his poetry to the great poet Rainer Maria Rilke, seeking advice, he begins a series of correspondence in which Rilke expresses his deepest insights into the artist s relationship with life, and the inner needs of the individual person growing towards maturity.

Written in Rilke s early, struggling years, Letters to a Young Poet is a work of beauty and urgency. Its discussion of the young poet s difficulties in finding his identity and vocation, mirrored in Rilke s own life, have resonated with generations of readers for over a century, and it stands as one of the most beloved and widely read sets of letters in the world.

This new translation by S ren Filipski is both accurate and fluid, capturing the intense, rhapsodic energy of Rilke s writing as well as the precision of his ideas.