Rainer Maria Rilke's Analysis

It was in February of 1903 that a young literary hopeful by the name of Franz Xaver Kappus reached out to not-yet-esteemed poet Rainer Maria Rilke in search of criticism and career advice. In what seems like an effort to cast him aside, Rilke refused to give Kappus criticism and advised him to instead search internally in order to truly reach poetic esteem. Whether or not Rilke initially wanted to take Kappus under his wing, he had acquired a new pen pal. That letter was the first of many to deliver Rilke’s ideas on topics such as Nature, creativity, sexuality, and solitude and how the artist utilizes them to create true masterpieces as well as find his or her place in society. It is no secret that Rilke seems
Throughout all ten of his letters, Rilke explains to Kappus how he needs to shut himself off from civilization in a cabin, and learn to have sex “not as opposites but as brother and sister, as neighbors, and will unite as human beings, in order to bear in common, simply, earnestly, and patiently, the heavy sex that has that has been laid upon them” (Rilke 41). The key point here is that in quite a bit of mythology, the act of sex, especially the way Rilke describes is a physical and even spiritual joining of two souls. Therefore, sexuality, the way one wishes to join souls with another, is a facet of the soul. To further prove this point, Rilke explains to Kappus that it “may someday be possible for many people”, but the solitary man has a head start because he “can now, already prepare and build with his own hands, which make fewer mistakes” (Rilke 41). It is spelled out here that solitude is what builds the foundation and is the main ingredient in cultivating sexuality, a piece of the