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Letter 4
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
Rilke apologizes for the delay in his response. It has been two months since he received Kappus’s last letter, but he has since traveled to Rome and has not found enough peace and solitude to respond—until now, of course. He finds Rome a very sad and lonely place, especially for the first few days of living in the city. The history is interesting, but the tourism surrounding that history turns it into a strange spectacle—the ruins of ancient structures are, after all, little more than random leftovers from the past. But there is certainly beauty in Rome, just like there’s beauty anywhere. As long as a person pays attention, there is always beauty. With some patience, it’s possible to pay attention to the small things and, in doing so, really experience the wonders of Rome.
Throughout Rilke’s ten letters to Kappus, the older poet’s ideas remain very consistent. Even when talking about his experience in Rome, he manages to circle back to one of the main ideas he wants to impart to Kappus: the fact that there’s beauty everywhere in life. Rilke personally finds Rome overwhelming and overhyped, but that doesn’t stop him from finding beauty in the city, since he feels capable of doing so everywhere he goes. His ability to appreciate the world around him is a great poetic gift, since it enables him to gaze upon the world with an artistic eye. In doing so, he ends up connecting with Rome in a more authentic way, feeling its history without playing into the spectacle of tourism.
Themes
Promising to write a longer letter when he moves into a smaller, quieter room in Rome, Rilke wraps up his thoughts. He also notes that a book Kappus sent—containing his own writing—never reached him. Rilke hopes it wasn’t lost in the mail and asks the young poet to confirm that it wasn’t. But since the mail is so unreliable, he worries that the book might be gone. Either way, he takes great pleasure in the idea of having one of Kappus’s books and assures him that he’ll always read the young poet’s work.
The comments Rilke makes about Kappus’s book reveal that the young poet has managed to publish some of his own writing. It’s logical to assume, then, that Rilke’s advice has helped Kappus improve as a poet, thus hinting at the value of mentorship in general.
Themes
