Thomas Merton on the Poetry and Letters of Rainer Maria Rilke

by Thomas Merton

Join Thomas Merton in exploring the timeless words of one of the world’s greatest poets, Rainer Maria Rilke.

6 pages, Audible Audio

First published January 1, 1965

About the author

Thomas Merton, religious name M. Louis, was an American Trappist monk, writer, theologian, mystic, poet, social activist and scholar of comparative religion. In December 1941 he entered the Trappist Abbey of Gethsemani and in May 1949 he was ordained to priesthood. He was a member of the convent of the Abbey of Our Lady of Gethsemani, near Bardstown, Kentucky, living there from 1941 to his death.
Merton wrote more than 50 books in a period of 27 years, mostly on spirituality, social justice and a quiet pacifism, as well as scores of essays and reviews. Among Merton's most enduring works is his bestselling autobiography The Seven Storey Mountain (1948). His account of his spiritual journey inspired scores of World War II veterans, students, and teenagers to explore offerings of monasteries across the US. It is on National Review's list of the 100 best nonfiction books of the century.
Merton became a keen proponent of interfaith understanding, exploring Eastern religions through his study of mystic practice. His interfaith conversation, which preserved both Protestant and Catholic theological positions, helped to build mutual respect via their shared experiences at a period of heightened hostility. He is particularly known for having pioneered dialogue with prominent Asian spiritual figures, including the Dalai Lama XIV; Japanese writer D.T. Suzuki; Thai Buddhist monk Buddhadasa Bhikkhu, and Vietnamese monk Thich Nhat Hanh. He traveled extensively in the course of meeting with them and attending international conferences on religion. In addition, he wrote books on Zen Buddhism, Confucianism, and Taoism, and how Christianity is related to them. This was highly unusual at the time in the United States, particularly within the religious orders.

Reviews

[Michelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

I listened to this and loved how you could hear him scratching away at the chalkboard as he illustrated points and hear all the monks laughing at his jokes! The content was deep and great and went way beyond a surface understanding.

[Meg Rice · Rating 1 out of 5]

I've tried on multiple occasions to listen further to these marginal recordings of Merton teaching about Rilke's poems. Difficult to hear but far more irritating is Merton inability to give his students time to formulate and speak their answers before he plunges into telling them what they should think about the meanings and his ramblings on background information which varies in its value to ones understanding of a given poem. As a retired teacher trained to give students "wait time to think" I found this unbearable and chose not the finish listening. I may in the future seek a text copy of this book to see if a transcription of these classes is less irritating.

[Mark · Rating 3 out of 5]

The well worn advice to refrain from meeting one’s favorite authors because they will never live up to the idealized image one carries around really held true for this series it is especially true for Merton’s recorded classes on Rainer Maria Rilke’s poetry. It doesn’t help that the editor states that Merton wrote of his love for Rilke’s poetry at about the same time he was teaching this series. In fact, it makes his statements all the more puzzling.

The Merton I met in these recordings was rushed in his presentations, prone to broad and at least to my mind rather shallow, parochial evaluations of Rilke’s theology and his poetry. If he were a politician, I’d say that Merton goes to considerable lengths to distance himself from Rilke, to the point that I began to wonder why he bothered to spend six hours presenting on this poet. His observations about the craft of poetry in general appeared to me to be uninformed, which was another shock to my system.

I’ve spent my fair share of time over almost forty years of training and education attempting to introduce very conservative students to authors whose views were well outside their theological, social, and political mindset, so I can imagine Merton might well have been attempting to ease his students past their natural defensive dismissal of a writer whose frame of reference might have been at odds with Roman Catholic orthodoxy.

And then of course there is the idea that these recordings represent an earlier stage in Merton’s theological and literary development.

If that sounds like an excessive effort to make allowances for a truly great writer and spiritual pioneer, then I am in complete agreement. After all of the efforts to understand how these recordings fit into an oeuvre that is truly exceptional in its depth and breadth, the truth is that these recordings are mediocre at best. Interesting if you want to peek under the hood of Merton’s intellectual development, but singularly unspectacular when taken on their own.

[Jamie Dougherty · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pedagogical nightmare! This was a lecture series delivered at Merton's monastery, and the content suffers from the form. The lectures feel really rushed, as it seems to have been 25 minute classes every week or so at an institution not primarily devoted to literary discussion. Merton is teaching to 'non-poets' here, or at least that's how he makes it feel, and he doesn't really allow himself time in the lecture to respect their questions, comments, ideas, etc. He uses the frustratingly common teaching shortcut of asking questions of his pupils for which he has exactly one answer prepared in his mind. :(

It was still interesting to get a little bit of context on Rilke's life, and a peek into 20th c. monastery life/monastic perspective.

[Jessica King · Rating 4 out of 5]

I want to listen to these lectures again sometime and write a better review. For now, the quote below captures the theme I most loved — that poetry captures incredibly meaningful parts of the spiritual experience.

“You see there is something to this. But you can’t possibly say that when he dies, God will cease to exist, no….that’s not what he’s saying. …You have to see what is the experience behind it. This is not as crazy as it looks. It may be, in fact, representative of a deep, really authentic religious feeling. And, in fact, I think it is.”

[James Biser · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a good collection of lectures about the poetry of Rilke. It may cause the reader to learn more.

[Liam Kelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Second collection I've read by Thomas Merton. I've also read lots of Rilke that's been more moving than I could've imagined, and so hearing Merton unpack the poetic experience as a religious one deepened my appreciation of both men's work.