Rainer Maria Rilke: ‘Letter to a Young Poet’

60 pp. manuscript book written out in Chinese ink on Zerkall paper with gouache paintings on Bodleian paper, black Zerkall endpapers, millboard covered in black Somerset card, Khadi Sunn Hemp Turkish Madder jacket, completed June 2019

This is the sixth letter in the exchange between Rilke and the young Mr Kappus. I was struck by Rilke’s advice to cultivate ‘aloneness, great inner solitude’. In a way, this is essential for the creative life in order to sustain the conviction that long hours at one’s desk are worthwhile. In a separate connection, the typographer, Jan Tschichold, described the almost monkish solitude and dedication required for the craft of calligraphy: ‘This silent work, which demands great concentration, is the real foundation for all my later work’.

However, Rilke’s letter also contains some strange theological elements which I struggled to understand: ‘Celebrate Christmas, dear Mr Kappus, with this reverent feeling that He [Christ] perhaps needs exactly this, your fear of life, in order to begin.’ I have no idea what this is about!