Significance of Paris

The capital of France is one of several cities from which Rilke writes his letters. It is important to note that, for many, Paris at the time the letters were written (the early 1900's) was an important center for artistic and creative activity and innovation. Rilke wrote the first and last letters of the book from Paris. This fact may have two different symbolic values. The first is as a manifestation of Paris being, as it were, the beginning and the end of artistic expression at the time the letters were written. The second, and perhaps more relevant, is that at the point of the first and last letters, the Young Poet is at both the end of an old journey and the beginning of a new one—the end of an old experience of being, the beginning of a new, exciting, enticing, way of seeing, feeling and creating.