Letters To A Young Poet Analysis

In the stories “Black Swan Green” and “Letters to a Young Poet”, both the young poet and Jason are going through similar situations. Both of them want help on their poetry. The central idea is that both mentors want their mentee to look to themselves and ask, “Do I need writing to live?”. The mentors want their mentee to stop writing about cliche love poems and to start writing about what they know. The mentees need to be honest about writing and if it's what they want to do. This central idea can be proven by analyzing a few literary terms.
One example from “Letters to a Young Poet” is a man vs. self conflict. In the letter Rilke wrote to the young poet he said, “And if out of, this turning within, out of this immersion in your own world, poems come, then you will not think of asking anyone whether they are good or …show more content…
On page 146, Madame Crommelynck says to Jason, “You love words, yes… but your words are still the master of you, you are not yet the master of them”(Mitchell 146). This is personification because David Mitchell gives the words human characteristics by saying that the words are still the master. Madame Crommelynck wants Jason to start writing about what he feels and sees. He does not control his words, they control him. She wants Jason to have his own voice in his writing. On page 148 Madame Crommelynck tells Jason, “ “My one demand,” she said, “Is you say what you think!” ”(Mitchell 148). This is person vs. society because not everyone wants to say what they think. People may disagree with what you say. Jason does not say what he thinks, he just writes about general things like nature and love. Madame Crommelynck wants him to say what he thinks in his writing because Jason does not have his own voice. He writes about generic things live everyone else does. He needs to find his own voice and not mimic someone