Letters to a Young Poet and Poems

<p>Letters To A Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke is a prosaic work but it refers directly to poetry. There are ten letters written to a young man about to enter the German military.</p><p> In the very beginning of the 1903 Rilke received a letter from a twenty-year old lieutenant of Austro-Hungarian army Franz Kappus. Verses were enclosed to the letter: the lieutenant turned out to be a poet. Rilke answered. Rilke wrote Franz Kappus ten letters; the last of them is dated by December 1908. After Rilke's death the letters were published in a separate book entitled Letters To A Young Poet. Of all Rilke's extensive correspondence these letters won the greatest popularity. It is explained by their content: there is nothing personal or private in them; Rilke wrote about the poetry nature of poetic works irony loneliness love etc. His philosophy-aesthetic views of that time are well reflected in these letters.</p>