Letters to a Young Poet

by Rainer Maria Rilke

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Student Question

According to Rilke, where should the poet find beauty?

Expert Answers

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The simplest answer to your question is that Rilke believed a true artist could find beauty everywhere, because it exists everywhere. In fact, Rilke pretty much states exactly that in Letter Five when, speaking about Rome, he states, "There is not more beauty here than in other places... but there is much beauty here, because everywhere there is much beauty." (47)

In Letter One, however, Rilke hints at places where the poet can look for, if not exactly "beauty," then what we might call "inspiration". Rilke lists places for the poet to turn, saying,

"[W]hen you express yourself, use the Things around you, the images from your dreams, and the objects you remember... Turn your attention to [your childhood]." (7-8)

In Letter Ten, Rilke once again makes it clear that beauty or poetry springs from Things (which for Rilke was any object the senses could take in and understand in a personal way). He tells Kappus that "all we need" is "to be in circumstances that are working upon us... [and] that place us in front of great natural Things." (108) 

[Note: All quotations from Stephen Mitchell translation, publish 1986 by Viking.]

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