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    Letters to a Young Poet (Rediscovered Books): With linked Table of Contents
    Letters to a Young Poet (Rediscovered Books): With linked Table of Contents
    Letters to a Young Poet (Rediscovered Books): With linked Table of Contents
    Ebook84 pages1 hour

    Letters to a Young Poet (Rediscovered Books): With linked Table of Contents

    By Rainer Maria Rilke

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    About this ebook

    These ten letters, written by one of the greatest poets of the twentieth century, offer deep and sincere advice to the young poet. They touch on all aspects of life and are valuable to anyone wishing to be a poet and to those who are not. Written with power, style, and conviction these letters will guide and inspire anyone who reads them.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRediscovered Books
    Release dateDec 5, 2014
    ISBN9781633845855
    Letters to a Young Poet (Rediscovered Books): With linked Table of Contents
    Author

    Rainer Maria Rilke

    Rainer Maria Rilke (1875-1926) is considered one of the greatest German-language writers to have ever lived. He is best known for his Duino Elegies, Sonnets to Orpheus, and The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge.

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    Reviews for Letters to a Young Poet (Rediscovered Books)

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    • 5/5
      In our 'constantly connected' computer age, Rilke's deep exploration of solitude and patient artistic growth is a breath of inspiration.

      "Only love can touch and hold [works of art] and be fair to them," he writes to Kappus, and then admonishes him to "believe in a love that is being stored up for you like an inheritance, and have faith that in this love there is a strength and blessing so large that you can travel as far as you wish without having to step outside it."

      It is an understatement to say that Rilke sets the bar high for poetic expression, but every time I read through these letters I'm inspired to at least try to create what he'd call a few good lines before I breathe my last.
    • 4/5
      Rilke wrote a series of letters to the young poet, Franz Xaver Kappus, beginning in 1902. Kappus was reading Rilke's poetry under the chestnut tress at the Military Academy in Wiener Nuestadt when his teacher, Horaček, noticed the volume. Rilke had been a pupil at the Military Lower School in Sankt Pölten when Horaček was a chaplain there, and Horaček had known Rilke personally. The military proved not to be for Rilke, and he continued his studies in Prague. Kappus, however, felt that his own choice to pursue a military career was "directly opposed to my own inclinations", yet would continue his military career for years after. In the meantime, Kappus decided to write to Rilke to ask for feedback on his own poetry, and Rilke maintained their correspondence despite his constant travels. By Rilke's tone in the letters, it is obvious that he enjoyed his correspondence with Kappus, and often told Kappus that if he wished to be a poet, he would need to change careers, or, at worst, he might find time in barracks life to keep at his poetry. The book provides Rilke's correspondence to Kappus, beginning with his return letter of 1903 and continuing until 1908. The book also includes a second work, The Letter from the Young Worker, which adopts a letter format to "a polemic against Christianity". This style recalls the dialogues of Plato and others, but in this case is one side of a potential written conversation. In many ways, the style mirrors the way we read Rilke's correspondence with Kappus, only having (mostly) one side of the narrative. In his first response, Rilke provides some important feedback. He suggests that Kappus' poetry lacks an identity. He suggests that Kappus is looking to the outside, but the answer is (pp. 6-7):Go into yourself. Examine the reason that bids you to write. This above all: ask yourself in your night's quietest hour: must I write? Dig down deep into yourself for a deep answer. And if it should be affirmative, if it is given to you to respond to this serious question with a loud and simple "I must', then construct your life according to this necessity; your life right into its most inconsequential and slightest hour must become a witness to this urge... A work of art is good if it has risen out of necessity... Accept this answer as it is, without seeking to interpret it. Perhaps it will turn out that you are called to be an artist... Then assume this fate and bear it, its burden and its greatness, without ever asking after the rewards that may come from outside.Imagine having such a mentor? Rilke was patient, kind, and wise. His connection with Kappus has, perhaps, something to do with being a poet while in the military system, something I identify with personally (having found that the military was, once I neared the tell-tale signs of the evening of my youth, "directly opposed to my own inclinations"). There is so much in such a short work, with Rilke's advice becoming "Candidean" - "take refuge in [subjects] offered by your own day-to-day life" - and focused on the individual rather than the work (and not in a mean-spirited way but as a mentor). Given that Kappus continues his military career and does not become a poet of any note, and that Rilke was the opposite in springing from the military's well, it makes me wonder: should we take care in choosing our careers so we do not waste time in the wrong station? Or should we learn what really floats our boat through trial and error? I suspect, based on Rilke's care for Kappus' work, that Rilke really knew himself as a result, while I felt that, perhaps, Kappus had taken the easy option.
    • 3/5
      Maybe a century has made this work less -- shocking? valuable? relatable?
    • 5/5
      Lovely collection of letters, advising a younger poet about life and art. As with most great works, it's greater than the sum of its parts. Rilke's musings and recommendations penetrate into humans' purpose, and how we fulfill that purpose. Or don't.
    • 5/5
      It's amazing that someone can write letters on the fly (were they edited at all?) and have them be an almost flawless mixture of essays and poetry, philosophy and personal experience. I can only wish it was longer.
    • 5/5
      This is a charming little book, as fluid and emotive as Rilke's own poetry. Honest in its advice, and how it is unafraid to take on the darker realms of emotion and embrace the fate of the world.

      Being a writer or a poet is a task of intense devotion, and Rilke gives it proper reverence. Rilke's focus is on the benefits of solitude and meditation, but also the steady work involved in this task, and how the writer must keep working so as to refine their craft.

      This is a (dare I say?) very spiritual book. Recommended to all.

    • 5/5
      Beautiful... Not a "how to write" book, a beautiful book about the art of writing.
    • 5/5
      Sincere, and beautifully written letters that provide inspiration to aspiring poets. Very heartfelt and revealing in content.
    • 5/5
      LOVE THIS.
    • 3/5
      These ten letters give us a glimpse into Rilke's philosophies of writing and life in general. They are at times very interesting, but at times boring. The mini biography of Rilke's life at the back gives the letters context, but is very boring.
    • 4/5
      It is a moving book and a youthful book. I wish I had it all along. Rilke writes with love and deep understanding, thoughts that at first seem like platitudes because of their generality and ring of truth. They could be in a self help book if not for the complexity of thought and phrasing he brings, the thought-throughness of it, and the many unconventional quirks he throws in. This is a book to be re-read many times over.
    • 3/5
      Worth reading, especially if you are an artist or writer. There are gems of advice tucked here and there. Rilke's letters to Franz Kappus make we wish I could travel back in time and talk to one or both of them.
    • 4/5
      I loved it. A little too much religion and emphasis on purity, and I'm pretty sure why he's as depressive as he was, but still mainly good advice.
    • 5/5
      These days everyone prefers the Stephen Mitchell translation, but I first read this book in Norton's translation and I confess to thinking it superior. I fell in love with this book when my dear friend Nicole Salimbene gave it to me for college graduation. I have loved it for many years, often going to it to remember to "love my solitude."
    • 4/5
      Beautiful, poignant prose and advice. "Heavy" and "depressing" at times. I would have liked to see Mr. Kappus' letters to Rilke included in the collection, but, nevertheless, it has some great advice for all types of writers.
    • 2/5
      I've loved every bit of Rilke's poetry I've read, but I couldn't stand these letters. Half of me saw them as a tired, private communication between an artist and an aspirant, How to Live Authentically; reasonable letters, bad book. The other half of me was repulsed, unable to look past the fawning, excessive chic granted them.
      Life-changing they are not.
    • 4/5
      These are the letter Rainer Maria Rilke wrote to the young, aspiring poet Franz Xaver Kappus. Through these letters, Rilke imparts his thoughts and feelings on living your life to its fullest potential, but to also make sure that you stay true to yourself throughout. I read through this book every couple of years, and it never fails to amaze me how a collection of letters written over 90 years ago can still have so much to offer us today. My copy is dog-eared from multiple readings, with numerous passages underlined, but I still seem to find something new in each reading that is relevant to my life right now.
    • 4/5
      Ten of Rilke's letters to a young aspiring poet. Practical advices and recommended readings amongst meditations on moral and solitude life. A mixed bag, had some interesting parts but in whole it was a bit boring.
    • 3/5
      Rilke gives practical advice and hard-won lessons to a young acolyte. A great gift for young or aspiring writers...
    • 5/5
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    • 5/5
      “Perhaps all the dragons in our lives are princesses who are only waiting to see us act, just once, with beauty and courage.”

      It feels quite trite to say this slim collection is inspirational.
      But there you go.
      It is.
    • 5/5
      “Perhaps all the dragons in our lives are princesses who are only waiting to see us act, just once, with beauty and courage.”

      It feels quite trite to say this slim collection is inspirational.
      But there you go.
      It is.
    • 5/5
      Published 2016 (Portuguese translation and afterword by José Miranda Justo).

      “Dieses vor allem: fragen Sie sich in der stillsten Stunde ihrer Nacht: ‘muss ich schreiben?’ Graben Sie in sich nach einer tiefen Antwort. Und wenn diese zustimmed lauten sollte, wenn Sie mit einem starken und einfachen ‘Ich muss’ dieser ernsten Frage begegnen dürfen, dann bauen Sie Ihr Leben nach dieser Notwendingkeit.”

      This book has been my favourite book for twenty years or more. When I was attending the Goethe Institute I had access to its library which is huge. I could request any book I wanted, and the services of the Goethe library would provide me with it. It was literally manna from heaven...Consequently, I never had a copy for myself. Until now. This gorgeous edition translated from German into Portuguese (bilingual edition), produced something worth having. It's a fine addition to my German library at home. On top of that the translation is far from serviceable. Apart from this translation, I only had come into contact with the translation done by Vasco Graça Moura which is a different beast altogether.

      I think the first time I wrote about Rilke was in 2008. What more can I say that I haven’t said before? Apparently still lots remained to be said and written…

      If you're into German Literature, Rilke in particular, read the rest of this review on my blog.
    • 3/5
      A lot of this is Rilke pointing out how true poetic souls like him are just a hell of a lot more realke than ordinary folks (journalists and critics in particular). He’s also obsessed with solitude — in Rilke’s cosmology, every man, woman and dog is an island. But he does make a good point about the potential for women’s lib to make things better (“even now, especially in the countries of Northern Europe, trustworthy signs”) and in general he doesn’t seem completely off his rocker à la Whitman for example. He’s a fan of Poe, which can’t be a bad thing:

      “And yet how much more human is the dangerous insecurity which drives those prisoners in Poe’s stories to feel out the shapes of their horrible dungeons and not be strangers to the unspeakable terror of their cells.”

      Although he immediately denies that this is in fact the human condition. He’s inadvertently funny once or twice:

      “Perhaps all the dragons in our lives are princesses who are only waiting to see us act, just once, with beauty and courage. Perhaps everything that frightens us is, in its deepest essence, something helpless that wants our love.”

      — but the best laugh comes in Stephen Mitchell’s foreword:

      “You can see it in his eyes: the powerful intuition of the state of being that is called God, the huge, oppressive longing for it, and the desolation. (I once showed a psychic friend of mine a late photo of Rilke, and it took her three hours to recover from the glance.)”
    • 3/5
      I'll preface this with the admission that I'm not a poet and neither an avid poetry reader nor writer. "Roses are red, violets are not. I've got hay fever and plenty of..." You get the point. I was led to read this by my brother-in-law who spontaneously recites appropriate German poetry to fit the situation and then kindly translates it into English. I was particularly taken by a poem he recited by Rainer Maria Rilke, and sought out more information about him. This work is essentially ten letters that Rilke wrote to a younger poet over a relatively short period of time. While some of each is rather mundane sorry-I-didn't-write-sooner type stuff, much is extremely compelling, insightful, thought-provoking, and lyrically-phrased. What he has to say in some letters goes way beyond how-to-be-a-better-poet to how to view and deal with life itself. I cannot say that I understand or agree with everything he has said, but he most definitely got my attention.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 4/5
      These ten letters from the poet Rilke’s contain not only advice on poetry and writing in general, but advice on many of the facets of life itself. Franz Kappus wrote to Rilke who had been at the same military school as Rilke around a decade earlier, and received this letters in return to his ongoing correspondence between 1903 and 1908.
      This was an interesting time for Rilke, who throughout was struggling to work productively. Though he had already published two collections of poems which had made him relatively well-known, he was in a rut throughout much of this period, travelling around and working on various things, including a study of Rodin whom he got to know quite well. It was only years later that Rilke receive the intense bout of creative inspiration that led to his writing the scores of poems of the celebrated Duino Elegies and Sonnets to Orpheus which he completed over a few weeks in 1922.
      Rilke is very sympathetic and understanding in these letters. He is kindly and helpful, and has much insight on the difficulties of life. We do not have here the letters that Kappus wrote to Rilke, as these letters were only published years later by Kappus, who naturally did not have the copies of the letters he himself sent. At the end of this volume we have a brief section covering the context of what Rilke was doing around the time when he wrote each of these letters, which is useful to have.
      These letters are not just of use to the would-be poet, but contain so much good advice and insight into life that they would be worth reading for anyone who does not quite know what to do with themselves. Generally a handy volume to have around to dip back into when necessary.
    • 5/5
      I've read this every coupla years or so since I was of the age of the "young poet." I've consistently found something new in it as I grow older. Reading it as a full-fledged adult is an entirely different experience. It becomes clear just how much it is specifically for the youth.

      As a mature reader, one can easily see and understand the tension between Rilke's demands that one find comfort in their own solitude and the command to love unconventionally, at any chance one gets. When I was younger, I understood the necessity of solitude as a buffering oneself from the vicissitudes of life--of exploring your own desires and passions at all costs, of allowing yourself a certain kind of selfishness in such a pursuit. I didn't understand how one could both allow their own loneliness and also be open to the possibility of connection.

      In my 20s this bothered me: the idea of "two solitudes greeting each other." Now I realize that it is simply an ontological reality he describes. Rilke is telling the young poet: "Listen, loneliness is a fact of life. Better to get acquainted with it, comfortable with it. The better you know yourself, the more okay with yourself you are, and the better you can love."
    • 5/5
      "...we will also gradually learn to realize that that which we call destiny goes forth from within people, not from without into them."

      From this incredibly sensitive and thoughtful man one can receive a lifetime's worth of advice on nearly all the topics pertinent to being human; namely, love, but also work, work/life balance, forgiveness, childhood difficulties, youthful exuberances, sex and poetry. Rilke was so remarkably giving of his wisdom, his thoughts, his deeply personal inner life. What a fortunate man, was Mr. Kappus, to have such a pen pal.
    • 4/5
      These are 10 letters that Rainer Maria Rilke sent in reply to a young man who began the correspondence with regard to his own poetry's worth.

      I would very much like to read more from this man. Many, many things that he said (though not all) were deeply-profound and affecting, one quote by him in particular was relevant and moving in my life right now, and so I am thankful to have been able to read such words as his. His perspective, even where mine differed, engaged me in deep and interesting thought.

      "To express yourself, use the things that surround you, the pictures of your dreams and the objects of your recollections. When your daily life seems barren, do not blame it; blame yourself rather and tell yourself that you are not poet enough to call forth its riches; for the creative worker knows no barrenness and no poor indifferent place."

      "And when from this turning inwards, from this retreat into your own world, verses come into being, then you will not think of asking anyone, whether they are good verses."

      "You cannot disturb [your course of development] more drastically than if you direct your thoughts outwards and expect from without the answer to questions which probably only your innermost feeling in the quietest hour of your life can answer."

      "Attach yourself to Nature, to the simple and small in her, which hardly anyone sees, but which can so unexpectedly turn into the great and the immeasurable."

      "Ripen like a tree which does not force its sap, but in the storms of spring stands confident without being afraid that afterwards no summer may come."

      It makes me long for such meaningful correspondence with another, and I think that all artists should glimpse upon these words, for the book is short, but will last beyond the pages.

      "And for the rest, let life happen to you. Believe me, life is right in every case."
    • 4/5
      Rainer Maria Rilke was a poet born in Prague (then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire) in 1875. He is generally labeled a “mystic” and has developed something of a cult following over the years.

      Rilke's poems are considered quite difficult to translate from the German, and frankly, I even have trouble understanding them in English. His letters, on the other hand, are quite comprehensible and even inspirational.

      This little volume is the latest of one of many translations of Rilke’s famous set of ten letters he wrote between 1902 and 1908 to a “fan” – an aspiring poet. The young man, Franz Kappus, 19, sent Rilke some poems and asked him if he would evaluate them, and whether he, Kappus, should risk all by becoming a poet full-time. Rilke, then only 28, answered generously, at length, and in great detail about what constitutes creativity and poetry, and how to channel the former into the latter. (What a dream-come-true for a “fan” of an author!)

      The letters give you a sense of Rilke’s great facility with words, and provide an interior portrait of an artist (himself) that is revelatory and moving.

      Don’t stop at the first letter; in it Rilke claims no one can help another with writing. But thereafter, Rilke goes on to advise Kappus about how and where to find the creative thoughts within himself. (Not only within: he does go on a bit about how “creativity of the spirit has its origin in the physical kind, is of one nature with it and only a more delicate, more rapt and less fleeting version of the carnal sort of sex.”)

      Poetry and sex. Who knew?

      But here, perhaps, is a better example of the beauty of his writing, when he explains to Kappus how Rome has helped his equanimity:

      "No, there is not more beauty here than elsewhere, and all these objects which generation after generation have continued to admire, which inexpert hands have mended and restored, they mean nothing, are nothing, and have no heart and no value; but there is a great deal of beauty here, because there is beauty everywhere.

      Infinitely lively waters go over the old aqueducts into the city and on the many squares dance over bowls of white stone and fill broad capacious basins and murmur all day and raise their murmur into the night, which is vast and starry and soft with winds. And there are gardens here, unforgettable avenues and flights of steps, steps conceived by Michelangelo, steps built to resemble cascades of flowing water – giving birth to step after broad step like wave after wave as they descend the incline. With the help of such impressions you regain your composure, win your way back out of the demands of the talking and chattering multitude (how voluble it is!), and you slowly learn to recognize the very few things in which something everlasting can be felt, something you can love, something solitary in which you can take part in silence.”

      Discussion: Can the prowess of Rilke be evinced through this (or any) translation? I have no idea. Rilke himself said in a letter to his long-time friend/lover Lou Andreas- Salomé that when he wrote on the same subject in French as well as German, the content “developed very differently in the two languages: which argues strongly against the naturalness of translation.”

      I cannot read Rilke in German, and thus I don’t feel able to say how good this particular translation is, although it is easy enough to find and compare others. Take, for example, the passage cited above about Rome. In this version, the translator has Rilke saying that “inexpert hands” have mended the beautiful objects of Rome. Another version I checked uses “workmen.” My impression is that restoring objets d'art is an extremely painstaking process requiring great skill, so I don’t find those concepts fungible. But, I have no idea what the passage says in the original German, so I have no knowledge about which construction is closer to Rilke’s intent. And in any event, otherwise I thought that this beautiful passage comes forth much clearer in this translation than the other. Generally, however, among translations, I think there is more variation in the associated matter (intro, notes, and the like) than in the text itself.

      What I can say that I found Rilke’s thoughts riveting. In the course of talking about creativity, he also muses on power relationships, love, gender roles, sickness and health, cowardice and fortitude, and how to think about what happens in life generally. I especially like this passage:

      "… imagining an individual’s existence as a larger or smaller room reveals to us that most people are only acquainted with one corner of their particular room … That way, they have a certain security. And yet … perilous uncertainty … is so much more human. …

      How can we forget those ancient myths found at the beginning of all peoples? The myths about the dragons who at the last moment turn into princesses? Perhaps all the dragons in our lives are princesses, only waiting for the day when they will see us handsome and brave? Perhaps everything terrifying is deep down a helpless thing that needs our help.”

      These letters will give you a very good sense of Rilke’s genius, his quixoticism, and lots of ideas to think about as well. And I particularly enjoyed being able to read something by Rilke that I actually understood….

      Note: This edition was translated and edited by Charlie Louth, and contains an introduction by Lewis Hyde.

    Book preview

    Letters to a Young Poet (Rediscovered Books) - Rainer Maria Rilke

    Letters to a Young Poet

    by Rainer Maria Rilke

    Translated by Reginald Snell

    © Rediscovered Books 2014

    All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever.

    ISBN: 978-1-63384-585-5

    10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

    Table of Contents

    Translator's Preface

    Translator's Introduction

    Introduction by the Young Poet

    The Letters

    I

    II

    III

    IV

    V

    VI

    VII

    VIII

    IX

    X

    Commentary

    Translator’s Preface

    I have thought it best to group all the explanations which any letters of Rilke necessarily involve, at the end of the book and out of the way; indeed, no harm will be done if the ordinary reader ignores them altogether, and enjoys the letters simply for what they are. But the student will probably care to pursue further some of the astonishing wealth of ideas which the poet here raises.

    The translation is designedly very literal, and the nature of German prose is such that an English rendering which aims—as this does—at close correspondence rather than happy paraphrase, can hardly avoid displaying at times a certain stiffness in the joints; but I have thought it right to reproduce Rilke’s oddities of expression and punctuation, which are no less curious in the original than they must seem here; and never to succumb to the temptation to write pretty-sounding English just because it is a poet that speaks. Rilke is a master of the unlikely, but poetically true, word; and a cunning employer of alliteration, personification, and hypallage.

    The frontispiece portrait of Rilke is here reproduced by kind permission of Frau M. Weininger, who took the snapshot near Muzot, Switzerland, in 1925. The photographs of the poet hitherto published in England have represented him in moods varying from dogged seriousness to the profoundest dejection, and I take pleasure in producing this evidence that Rilke knew how to smile.

    I wish to express my gratitude for the generous and scholarly help afforded me by Dr Julian Hirsch, who has taught me much German.

    R. S.

    Translator’s Introduction

    Since Rilke’s death in 1926 the publication of his letters has proceeded steadily, in a somewhat haphazard way (the number of letters to a volume varying between two and two hundred), until well over a thousand in all have been given, mainly by his publisher Kippenberg and his son-in-law Carl Sieber, to the world. The central collection contains varied correspondence covering the years 1899-1926 (the time of his first Russian visit to his last days at Muzot); there are the letters to his publisher, covering twenty years’ friendly business association; there are the numerous letters quoted, wholly or in part, in various memoirs; and finally, two small collections, the ten early Letters to a young poet here translated, and the nine laterLetters to a young woman. These last two volumes are examples of the care and solicitude which he always shewed to unknown correspondents; Rilke was the postal confessor, for at least a quarter of a century, of a large number of young people. The recipients of the letters in the main series number more than two hundred, and there are many private bundles of letters— beautifully phrased, beautifully penned, intimate talks to people he had never seen—that will in all probability never be published. The poet himself stated, at the end of his life, that he had put into his letters a part of his creative genius; and certainly he is with the great poet letter-writers of European literature, with Goethe and Shelley—almost with Keats. TheLetters to a young poet illustrate perfectly the kindliness, the complexity, and at the same time the impersonality and remoteness of Rilke’s manner with unknown correspondents. He talks repeatedly of his dear Herr Kappus, but he is really speaking at, not to, the young man; he is thinking aloud, meditating his own problem, spinning—as always, and as he counsels his young poet to do—his web of creation from his own inwards. A young man or woman had only to write him a letter containing the words art, or work, or love, or death, or God (and young people find it very difficult to keep these words out of their letters) in order to touch Rilke into activity. In such letters he always displays modesty, gentleness and a desire to yield, as well as accept, the secrets of the heart; his advice is usually very sound, and a constant feature of his homiletics is his moral sure-footedness. Of the ten letters that follow, nine were written within the space of eighteen months, which were also months of important development for Rilke himself. It is here that much of their interest lies: they contain the leitmotivs that were to appear later in his greatest poetry, and nearly all orders in the Rilkean creation are represented, except the angels and the youthfully dead—here, at least, are Solitude, and Difficult Love, and Seeing, and Things, and the Building of God.

    It will be well to recapitulate, as briefly as possible, the events in the poet’s life that preceded his first letter to a young lieutenant in the Austrian army. Rene Rilke was born at Prague in 1875, the delicate seven-months’ child of a father who fussed and a mother who coddled him; yet he was destined from birth to be a soldier. From the age often he spent four years at a junior, and six months at a senior, Military Academy, where he was bullied and unhappy, and first began to build his defence-works of solitude. He finished his studies at home, where he published his earliest verses, which are musical, cleverly rhymed and glib in the Humbert Wolfe manner. Stefan George, on the single occasion of their meeting in Florence, told him that he had published too early; how very very right he was there! Rilke later wrote [Letters 1921-1926, p. 61). All the conceptions which were to prove most fertile for his art seem to have their origin before 1900: maidenhood, solitude, private death, and God as created not creator. By the turn of the century, and his twenty-fifth birthday, he had published Laral Offering, Heinesque and bitter-sweet verses largely concerned with Prague; Dream Crowned, where he begins to brood over death; Advent, which shews new literary influences, including those of Jacobsen and Dehmel; To Celebrate Myself, where the authentic poet in him begins to make himself heard; various early dramas, stories and sketches, some of these last being of a gothically grisly character; and he had written, in a single night,

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