Rilke Gave Bad Advice

Rainer Maria Rilke was born on December 4th, 1875 in Prague. His father was one of those hawk, hard-assed militarily inclined man’s man (like the father in The Sound of Music sort of) who sent his son to a military boarding school as a child. Apparently the personality of Rilke was such that his days in military school were days of profound misery.

I don’t know if Rilke is a good poet or not. One problem, for me, is that I can only read his work in translation, being one of those Americans too ignorant and unmotivated to have learned another language.

Check out a Rilke poem at: http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15814

Rilke published his first book of poetry at age 19. It may sound like an excuse, but it was easier to get poetry published in his day. Fewer people were writing poetry and more people were reading it. Supply and demand was at work, pure and simple.

One of the most significant thing Rilke wrote for most Americans reading stuff today is a little volume called Letters To A Young Poet, a collection of 10 letters that are more like essays than letters. The way I understand it Franz Kappus a 19 year old military school student,considering entering the German military, wrote to Rilke because Rilke had attended the same military school when he was younger. Kappus was a wantabe poet and Rilke was a recognized, published poet. The first letter from Kappus was asking Rilke to read his poetry and give him some feedback. Very little feedback was given to the young poet. Rilke and Kappus continued to correspond from 1902 to 1908. Those letters would surely have been lost forever, without Kappus. The young poet kept the letters from Rilke and three years after Rilke had died, in 1929, Kappus assembled and published the ten letters. in book form.

The title of the book sort of implies that this is advice from an old, wise, established guy to a young, budding new guy, but that’s not true. Kappus was about 19 and Rilke was like 27. It seems that when Rilke got that first letter from the young Kappus he saw something of himself within Kappus. Rilke had been a student at that same military school, and hated it. Kappus was torn about what to do next with his life, and wondering if he had the talent as a poet to follow the road less traveled, the one Rilke had picked.

One of the questions Kappus wanted answered is a question every poet, every artist wants to know:

Am I good enough?

Rilke’s answer is that this question is the wrong question. Rilke says that every person should go into one’s self, and seek out motive. Why do you even want to write? Rilke gets all touchy-feely about it saying that a poet needs to ask will I die if I can’t write?

To me such thoughts are silly. You have to have food, and water, and be protected from extreme weather conditions to live, but you don’t have to write to live. No one does. You may feel compelled, or driven to write, or paint, or make dolls, but it is a compelling inclination within one’s mind, but it is not a life and death matter.

Of course, all compelling forces within, when ignored, may not kill you, but they will contribute to a miserable life.

Rilke tells the young poet:

. . . meet this solemn question with a strong, simple “I must,” then build your life in accordance with this necessity and so he responded. . . . as I have said, one feels one could live without writing, then one shouldn’t write at all. ~Rilke

There is a generally accepted belief that borders on conceit. Rilke is saying, Unless you have this “gift that I have” you should not do what I do. Actors say, “if you don’t have to act, then don’t be an actor, if you don’t have to write, then don’t be a writer, if you don’t have to paint, then sell shoes.”

I don’t like the advice. It makes art an elitist act, and spreads the lie that creative output is some sort of God given gift and that divides the artist from the dull, and uncreative masses.

If your daily life seems poor, do not blame it; blame yourself that you are not poet enough to call forth its riches; for the Creator, there is no poverty. ~Rilke

I do believe that there are both positive and negative aspects of being a creative person, and I realize that not everyone practices a creative art form, but in my opinion, that is not because they are inferior, or that they were taking a smoke break when God passed out gifts and talents. Talent, and creativity is a mystery to most of us because we can’t explain why some seem to have it, and some don’t. The truth is that just because we don’t know something doesn’t mean it is unknowable. At one time humans were food gatherers. We had no idea how to grow our food. We were hunters because we had no clue how to domesticate livestock. But growing and herding were within reach even for the food gatherers. In a similar way, all of us have the potential to be poets, or artists of some kind. What happens to make the potential become a reality, that part, I’m not sure about. It may be what was valued and encouraged when you were a child. It most certainly is something that goes one in your mind, and is probably some behavior that is reinforced in some way by people who’s opinion matters to you.

The only journey is the one within. ~Rilke

The journey of life seems to me to be a inner path. This is an important truth, and it also explains why it is such a difficult path. In the mind we are interpreting the sensations we are receiving in the moment, but we are also applying our past experiences, and extrapolating on those past experiences to anticipate what might happen.

Then there is one final quote I like:

There are no classes in life for beginners; right away you are always asked to deal with what is most difficult. ~Rilke