Rilke's Letters To A Young Poet

The sublime is a feature present in many art works. It is an aesthetics category that, unlike other categories such as beauty or the picturesque, examines great and awe-inspiring phenomena. The sublime is an aesthetic notion that describes the emotions of awe that people experience when they encounter the immense, powerful, and even terrifying forces of the natural world. Like all aesthetic notions, the sublime produces various emotions with the persons viewing a piece of art. Moreover, many works of art that depict industrial landscapes or scenes rely upon the sublime to communicate to the viewer the sublime nature of modern industry. Indeed, artistic depictions of technology in industrial paintings reflection aesthetic concept of sublime by the scale and focal point in paintings.

In a world that has become immune to accepting all types of art, Marya Mannes believes we have lost our standards and ability to identify something as “good” or “bad”. In her essay, “How Do You Know It’s Good”, she discusses society’s tendency to accept everything out of fear of wrongly labelling something as being good or bad. She touches on various criteria to judge art, such as the artist’s purpose, skill and craftsmanship, originality, timelessness, as well as unity within a piece rather than chaos. She says that an individual must decide if something is good “on the basis of instinct, experience, and association” (Mannes). I believe that by using standards and the process of association, we will be able to judge what makes an art piece good in comparison to others. However, Mannes forces me to consider the difference between what may be appealing versus what is actually good, and when deciding which art we should accept, which is truly more important. I believe that “good” and “bad” are two ends of a large, subjective spectrum of grey area. It is possible for a piece of art to be good in some areas and bad in others, and if something does not live up to all of our standards, it does not necessarily mean it should be dismissed. Thus, I believe my personal standards for judging art are based on which my standards are largely based on the personal reaction evoked from a piece of art. Though I agree with Mannes’ standards to an extent, I believe that certain standards, such as evoking a personal response, can be more telling of if a piece of art is good as opposed to its timelessness, or the level of experience of an artist in his/her craft.

Original ideas are born from the influences of other people and the concept that interaction with art of different kinds can spark something great within a person. Lethem is not recommending the infringement of an artist’s work, but is encouraging people to find motivation and revelation in the works of other artists and translate that into something raw and inexperienced. Lethem writes, “Most artists are brought to their vocation when their own nascent gifts are awakened by the work of a master….Finding one’s voice isn’t just an emptying and purifying oneself of the words of others but an adopting and embracing of filiations, communities, and discourses” (214). Although Lethem

The pencil liberates my stresses and sorrows. Bare and unimpeded, my mind is able to isolate itself from anything that was happening in my life. At my art table, which is merely an escape from reality, my curiosity is able to wander. Within this room, five blank canvas's look in on me as I become a mold of my imagination. A step inside my world develops into a sea of color and exploration. The vibrancy of the walls resonates throughout. Over the years, my room has served as my oasis. It’s my escape from monotonous and mundane routines. It’s my exploration of another side of me. I observe such works of art almost as much as I create. Taking notice of my classmates’ innovations and inspired by their creativity, my paintbrush begins to alleviate stress. I strive to produce pieces others will appreciate, but often find myself to be the true admirer. My pride, in this world, is driven simply by my own curiosity to express myself. I credit this side of me as the “passion” that supplements my insane drive for success. This passion has sparked critical thinking in me as well as how I see failure. Life is a blank canvas and you can truly draw whatever you want, and if you fail, you start over and don’t make that same mistake again! Hard work takes ideas quite far, but true success is derived from ingenuity and the generation of

“Letter One” of Letters to a Young Poet was the beginning of the correspondence between the young, nineteen year old aspiring poet Frank Kappus and writer Rainer Maria Rilke. At the time, Kappus was a student at a military academy, similar to one Rilke had attended. Kappus felt that poetry was his true calling, therefore, he sought advice from Rilke. Rilke made it abundantly clear in his letter that criticism is what destroys art and is irrelevant since art comes from within. He remains perceptive throughout his writing, and he chooses specific words that convey a particular tone and helps establish two central ideas.

Prior to finishing my final piece I discovered how nostalgia and the recycling of materials is typical in art, especially amongst artists inspired by the past. Research on modern artists such as Doxey, inspired me to paint a chair to accompany my cushions. Further examination on a collection of art movements for example, Classicism, and Neoclassicism influenced my perceptions of art. Further research on the likes of Van Gogh, especially his piece, Dutch, 1853–1890, which inspired me to experiment with gouache, acrylics, and colour palate

There were two pieces of text I recently read, one is “This is water” by David Foster Wallace, and the other is Letters to a young poet by Rainer Maria Rilke. I will be discussing the contrast between these two texts and tell the audience what they were precisely thinking about. For Wallace, his passed commencement speech to share advice to people who here at a college graduation. In his speech, he delivered the reality of how a typical adult life goes. His statement also talked about decision making, and how all choices will impact our future growth. On the other hand, Rilke conveys his ideas by writing the letter to one military student named Franz Xaver Kappus. In the letter to a young poet, I mostly focused on letter eight, because he pays attention to solitude and how it is essential to be a real artist. It is only through solitude that he will learn personal truths, he told Kappus that he needs to trust his feelings and to face the difficulty.

Ideas are neither created nor destroyed, therefore the notion of originality is false. Originality cannot exist if every thought and idea are preexisting, because it is proven that as human beings we are naturally inclined to copy one another. In art specifically, it comes to no surprise that artists can become heavily influenced by another’s artwork and unconsciously copy them. In some instances, this would be considered plagiarism and copyright infringement, but to Jonathan Lethem, it is a gift. In his piece, “The Ecstasy of Influence: A Plagiarism” he discusses the obscenities of privatizing ideas and opinions, because it restricts creativity. By forming false entitlement on something that was never truly yours, other individuals suffer

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.”

In both Letters to a Young Poet “Letter One” and Black Swan Green “Solarium” share similar central ideas about beauty. They also discuss where the beauty in poetry comes from. Letters to a Young Poet is a series of letters between Franz Kappus, a young, amature poet, and Rainer Maria Rilke, a older, experienced poet who helps Kappus better his writing. “Letter One” is Rilke’s first letter to Kappus about some poems that have been sent to him from Kappus. Within this letter Rilke informs Kappus what to do and what not to do in his writing.

On December 4, 1875, Rainer Maria Rilke was born in Prague, the only child of an unhappy marriage. Rilke’s childhood was also unhappy; his parents placed him in military school with the desire that he become an officer—a position Rilke was not inclined to hold. With the help of his uncle, who realized that Rilke was a highly gifted child, Rilke left the military academy and entered a German preparatory school. By the time he enrolled in Charles University in Prague in 1895, he knew that he would pursue a literary career: he had already published his first volume of poetry, Leben und Lieder, the previous year. At the turn of 1895-1896, Rilke published his second collection, Larenopfer (Sacrifice to the Lares). A third collection,Traumgekrönt (Dream-Crowned) followed in 1896. That same year, Rilke decided to leave the university for Munich, Germany, and later made his first trip to Italy.

Arthur C. Danto in “The Artworld” provides us with the argument that, “To see something as art requires something that the eye cannot descry-an atmosphere of artistic theory, a knowledge of the history of art: an artworld.” Danto shows us the importance of the artworld in order to know that a work of art is more than just what we can plainly see. Danto provides two theories he calls the “IT” (Imitation theory) and the “RT” (Reality theory). With these two theories, Danto explains how we can define art and why “The Artworld” is needed to help understand art, because after all, “these days one might not be aware he was on artistic terrain without an artistic theory to tell him so.”

Rilke uses literary devices such as similes to teach his ideas. The similes’ blurry meanings provide a place for artists to understand the message on their own terms. An example of this is, in the

As literary critics, Plato and Aristotle disagree profoundly about the value of art in human society. Plato attempts to strip artists of the power and prominence they enjoy in his society, while Aristotle tries to develop a method of inquiry to determine the merits of an individual work of art. It is interesting to note that these two disparate notions of art are based upon the same fundamental assumption: that art is a form of mimesis, imitation. Both philosophers are concerned with the artist's ability to have significant impact on others. It is the imitative function of art which promotes disdain in Plato and curiosity in Aristotle. Examining the reality that art

The sublime describes the awe and shock that people experience when they see something that is enormous in size. David Rodgers summarizes the works of a man named Longinus, who is credited as the first person to define the sublime. Longinus defines it as “differing from beauty and evoking more intense emotions by vastness, a quality that inspires awe. Whereas beauty may be found in the small, the smooth, the light and the everyday, the sublime is vast, irregular, obscure and superhuman” (Rodgers, 1996, pg. 889). He explains that the sublime is more than just beauty because the sublime captures the massive size of these objects that creates wonderment. Along with Longinus writing about the vast and sheer awe that the sublime creates, Immanuel Kant also explains his definition of the sublime. Kant explains that “the physical properties, whether actually or imaginative perceived, that were generally accorded to the sublime by 18th-century writers, were vastness, obscurity and irregularity, all of which could evoke a degree of terror” (Rodgers, 1996 pg. 890). He also agreed that the impressive size of things helped make them sublime. Overall, the sublime explains the wonderment and awe that someone feels when looking at something that is huge and impressive.