David Mitchell Poem Analysis

The two stories Black Swan Green by David Mitchell and Letters to a Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke are similar because both are about mentors and mentees in poetry. Both mentors have a young poet seeking help from them. The young poets both learn valuable lessons from the mentors on their writing. The mentors tell them to write what they think and about what they know and love. They tell the poets only to write if they need to write to live and want to dedicate their lives to it. The authors both use many literary elements in their writings. From Letters to a young poet, Rilke uses many different literary elements to teach the young poet more about writing. “So rescue yourself from these general themes and write about what your everyday life offers you.” Rilke is telling the young poet to be original and write about his own life experiences and his own original thoughts. He’s telling the young poet to not use cliches and to be his own self. In other words, Rilke also wants his mentee to look to himself for his ideas. Rilke is teaching the young poet another lesson here about poetry “There is only one thing you should do. Go into your self. Find out the commands you to write; see whether it has spread its roots into the very depths of your heart; confess to yourself whether

“You, you must write. If you still fear to publish in your name, it is better not to publish.” Here, Madame Crommelynck is saying to Jason that he should only write if he needs to write, which is almost exactly what Rilke wrote to the young poet he has been sending letters to. They both state that the young poet should live for writing. Madame Crommelynck says that if Jason doesn’t publish his poems in his name, then it is better not to publish them at all because if you live to write you shouldn’t be ashamed or embarrassed of