from Rilke's letter to Lou Andreas-Salome, August 8, 1903
But I still lack discipline, the ability and the necessity to work for which I have longed for years. Do I lack the strength? Is my will sick? Is it the dream in me that inhibits all action? The days pass, and sometimes I hear the passing of life. And as yet nothing has happened, as yet nothing is real about me; I keep on dividing myself and flow apart,--I who want to run in one river-bed and become great. For it should be like that, shouldn't it, Lou: we should be like a river and not branch off into canals and bring water to the fields? We should, should we not, keep a grip on ourselves and storm ahead? Perhaps, when we get very old, once right at the end, we can let go, spread out and pour into a great delta.
2 comments:
I think Whitman would have disagreed exuberantly. To forge forward with a singleness of purpose such as Rilke describes is seductive as a magister vitae. Instead, to explore all possibilities where ever one is led...that seems more adventurous, and likely to lead to a richer experience. I think even Frost would approve ("Way leads on to way...")and I know that the wandering spirit that guides poets of the world is more dangerous, but also more delicious...
Rilke's writing style is so smooth that it's tempting to fall for everything he says. That worries me.
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