Letters to a Young Poet (original title, in German: Briefe an einen jungen Dichter) is a collection of ten letters written by the Bohemian-Austrian poet Rainer Maria Rilke (1875–1926) to Franz Xaver Kappus (1883–1966), a 19-year-old officer cadet at the Theresian Military Academy in Wiener Neustadt, between 1903 and 1908.

According to Kappus, in late 1902 while a student at the Theresian Military Academy in Wiener Neustadt in Lower Austria, he was reading Rilke's poetry.

[4] Horacek expressed surprise that the former pupil had "become a poet" and described to Kappus the young Rilke as a "thin, pale boy" whose quiet demeanor proved unable to bear the strain of a military education and life.

"[1] Rilke provided advice that inspired Kappus to search broader issues of intimacy and the nature of beauty and art, as well as probing philosophical and existential questions.

The letters address personal issues that Kappus had apparently revealed to Rilke; ranging from atheism, loneliness, and career choices.

Rilke expands on the theme of developing a rich inner life and offers an inspiring perspective on the process of creating art.

Written in Viareggio, near Pisa, Italy on 5 April 1903 – Rilke describes two focuses for his second letter: the first is irony, which he urges the young poet to be wary of, and in the second section, he recommends the books that "are indispensable to [him]," specifically "the Bible and the books of the great Danish writer, Jens Peter Jacobsen."

Written in Viareggio, near Pisa, Italy on 23 April 1903 – Rilke discusses Niels Lyhne and Marie Grubbe by Jens Peter Jacobsen in relation to the nature of art.

In the second section of the letter, Rilke critiques the work of Richard Dehmel: "For him there exists no totally mature and pure world of sex, none that is simply human and not masculine only."

Rilke argues that rooting art that deals with love in gender "disfigure[s]" it, and that "there is in [Dehmel's] perception something spiteful, seemingly wild, something temporal, not eternal.

He writes that: "Physical lust is a sensuous experience no different from innocently viewing something, or from the feeling of pure delight when a wonderful ripe fruit fills the tongue.

Perhaps the great renewal of the world will consist of this, that man and woman, freed of all confused feelings and desires, shall no longer seek each other as opposites, but simply as members of a family and neighbors, and will unite as human beings, in order to simply, earnestly, patiently, and jointly bear the heavy responsibility of sexuality that has been entrusted to them."

Written in Rome, Italy on 23 December 1903 – Rilke reminds the young poet of the benefits of solitude, telling him: "To be lonely as one was lonely as a child, while adults were moving about, entangled with things that seemed big and important, because the grownups looked so busy and because one could not understand any of their doings — that must be the goal.

He writes: "It is true that many young people who do not love rightly, who simply surrender themselves and leave no room for aloneness, experience the depressing feeling of failure."

Written in Jonsered, Sweden on 4 November 1904 – Feelings and discipline are discussed in brief, though the ninth and tenth letters are Rilke's shortest, with minimal elaboration such themes.