Excerpts from Letters to a Young Poet

Letters to a Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke

How could we forget those ancient myths that stand at the beginning of all races,
the myths about dragons that at the last moment are transformed into princesses?
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.
So you mustn't be frightened, if a sadness rises in front of you,
larger than any you have ever seen; if an anxiety, like light and cloud-shadows,
moves over your hands and over everything you do.
You must realize that something is happening to you, that life has not forgotten you,
that it holds you in its hand and will not let you fall.






"When I was one-and-twenty..." By A. E. Housman

When I was one-and-twenty
I heard a wise man say,
"Give crowns and pounds and guineas
But not your heart away;
"Give pearls away and rubies
But keep your fancy free."
But I was one-and-twenty,
No use to talk to me.
When I was one-and-twenty
I heard him say again,
"The heart out of the bosom
Was never given in vain;
Tis paid with sighs a plenty
And sold for endless rue."
And I am two-and-twenty,
and oh, 'tis true, 'tis true.