Rilke ~ Letters to a Young Poet ~ Go into Yourself

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
Cairo 97 BCE (BC) Digital Artwork by KTW
Kenneth Webb