The Great Poets, Frau Rita SchneeweißKenneth WebbJuly 12, 2025Rainer Maria Rilke, Go into Yourself, Paris 17 February 1903, Paris, Letters to a Young PoetComment

Rilke ~ Letters to a Young Poet ~ Go into Yourself

The Great Poets, Frau Rita SchneeweißKenneth WebbJuly 12, 2025Rainer Maria Rilke, Go into Yourself, Paris 17 February 1903, Paris, Letters to a Young PoetComment

The Great Poets

Go Into Yourself

Rainer Maria Rilke

Paris

17 February 1903

Letters to a Young Poet

There is only one thing to do. Go into yourself. Examine your reason for writing. Discover whether it is rooted in the depths of your heart, and find out whether you would rather die than be forbidden to write. Above all, ask yourself in the stillest hour of the night, have I no choice but to write? Dig deep within for the truest answer, and if this answer is a strong and simple yes, then build your life up upon this necessity. Your life henceforth, down to its most ordinary and insignificant moment, must prove and reveal this truth.

Rainer Maria Rilke
Paris
1903

Paris, February 17, 1903

Letters to a Young Poet.

13 July 2025

Liverpool and Gloucestershire

© 2025 Kenneth Thomas Webb © 2025 RS De

My Source

A Year With Rilke
Daily Readings from the best of Rainer Maria Rilke
Translated and edited by Joanna Macy & Anita Barrows

HarperCollins Publishers
Selections, English, 2009
ISBN 978-0-06-185400-2