Letters to a Young Poet, by Rainer Maria Rilke

Introduction

Franz Kappus, a 19-year old student, wanted to solicit a career advice and a literary critique for the poems he had written (“Rainer Maria Rilke: Letters to a Young Poet” 1). Kappus solicited the advice and critique of Rainer Maria Rilke, a pioneer Austrian poet (“Rainer Maria Rilke: Letters to a Young Poet” 1). Rilke wrote ten letters in order to provide assistance to the needs of Kappus. These letters were in Rilke’s work, entitled, “Letters to a Young Poet.”

There are numerous advantages and complication in the humanistic approaches to the study of psychology. Numerous individuals sent out messages to each other, non-explicitly, thus, influencing the actions exhibited. As it was stated in the first letter written by Rilke, addressed to Kappus:”Things aren’t all so tangible and sayable as people would usually have us believe; most than all other things are works of art, those mysterious existences, whose life endures beside our own small, transitory life” (Rilke 8). People are able to understand each other in the normal process since gestures have been popular among our societies. In addition, individuals would not have to waste so much time verbalizing everything in our today’s fast-paced societies. The only complication in this process had been individuals with difficulty processing cognitive information had struggling experiences adapting to this usual humanistic approach.

Individuals have the mind-set to be able to act upon or make decisions, whether they are right or wrong, based on their own free wills. According to the second letter written by Rilke addressed to Kappus: “When you are fully creative, try to use it, as one more way to take hold of life” (Rilke 14). Humans have the psychological capacity...

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...e may cease to feel joys and contentment.

Conclusion

In the letters that Rilke wrote for Kappus, we can discern that we could learn how to deal with our emotions and psychological experiences from the several perspectives of artists. We can infer that artists put in several types of emotions and unique strategies in dealing with various types of challenges in life. Like the artists, we should learn to be creative by being strong in dealing with emotional setbacks. We are only in charge of ourselves. If we allow our negative emotions to overwhelm us, our loved ones can never help us fully recover if we do not help ourselves.

Works Cited

stillnessspeaks.com, 2008. Web. 21 January 2014.

Rilke, Rainer Maria. Letters to a Young Poet. New York: Penguin, 2013. Print.

enotes.com, 2014. Web. 25 January 2014.