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Summary
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Letters to a Young Poet, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Solitude and Difficulty
Art, Life, and Uncertainty
Patience and Self-Assurance
Mentorship and Guidance
Summary
Analysis
A writer named Franz Xaver Kappus explains that he was reading poetry by Rainer Maria Rilke while sitting in a park in Wiener-Neustadt, Austria. One of his professors at the Military Academy stopped to speak with him and examined the book in his hands. The professor, Horaček, knew Rilke when he was a young student in military school, remembering him as a quiet and serious fellow who was often by himself. When Rilke went on to Military College, it became clear that he didn’t have the temperament for military life, so he left and completed his studies in Prague. Hearing about Rilke, Kappus decided to write him—a decision that led to a rich and rewarding correspondence.
The introduction briefly contextualizes the ten letters that make up Letters to a Young Poet. Moreover, it reveals that Kappus was (as the title indicates) quite young when his correspondence with Rilke began. Indeed, he was still a student in military school, so the chance to communicate with Rilke—a well-known poet—was undoubtedly quite significant, most likely influencing the way Kappus viewed the world as a young man.
Themes
