Rainer Maria Rilke's Letters To A Young Poet

“Letter One” of Letters to a Young Poet by poet Rainer Maria Rilke is a letter to a young poet about how he should write poetry, and more specifically, how to use beauty when writing poetry. A young poet had previously requested Rilke’s advice on how to create and write poetry. Rilke responded by telling the poet that he should descend into himself and question whether he feels a need to write in order to determine whether he should write at all. Black Swan Green chapters “Hangman” and “Solarium” by David Mitchell are about a boy, Jason Taylor, who has trouble speaking because of his stammer. Ironically, he writes poetry that is published, which becomes a way for him to express himself in ways he could not by speaking. He writes his poetry under the pseudonym Eliot Bolivar because he is ashamed of the fact he writes poetry Jason ends up meeting a woman, Eva van Outryve de Crommelynck, to discuss his poetry how he should write it, especially through beauty. Over the course of both texts, Rilke and
Rilke tells the young poet that he must be truthful with himself and find out whether he needs to and should write poetry. Otherwise, he will not be able to write proper poetry. Madame Crommelynck also tells Jason multiple times the importance of honesty, the most straightforward being “True poetry is truth” (“Solarium”, p. 155). She says this because, as she also says, “Truth is not popular, so poetry is also not” (“Solarium”, p. 155). She tells Jason he is finally speaking like a poet when he begins to speak truthfully of his secret shame of writing poetry. Madame Crommelynck also tells Jason that if he continues to write under the pseudonym of Jason Taylor and is not honest about his poetry, then he should not bother writing poetry at all. Both texts tell the younger poet that if one is not truthful with oneself and the public, then one should not bother writing poetry at