In Letters to a Young Poet Rainier Maria Rilke writes “If your everyday life appears to be unworthy subject matter, do not complain to life. Complain to yourself. Lament that you are not poet enough to call up its wealth.” Sounds like that could have come straight out of Walden.
Here’s a quote from Walden: “We must learn to reawaken and keep ourselves awake, not by mechanical aids, but by an infinite expectation of the dawn, which does not forsake us in our soundest sleep. I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable ability of man to elevate his life by a conscious endeavor. It is something to be able to paint a particular picture, or to carve a statue, and so to make a few objects beautiful; but it is far more glorious to carve and paint the very atmosphere and medium through which we look, which morally we can do. To affect the quality of the day, that is the highest of arts.”
Rilke’s letters were written from 1903 to 1904. Walden was published 50 years before in 1854. It would be interesting to see if Thoreau’s writings had any bearing on Rilke’s thought.
