The poet’s path to wisdom

Posted: October 17th, 2013

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The poet’s path to wisdom

Rilke in his poem the dragon princess says how worry of facing challenges inhibits people from acquiring wisdom to deal with difficulties that they face in their lives. Yet facing these challenges can yield good results in their lives. He explains that through persistence this obstacle can be overcome by human beings to achieve successful results that will become a source of wisdom to them. He says that the things human beings perceive as alien and shy away from are in real sense things that when faced with courage turns out to be the best in their lives.

Worry is a major obstacle to achieving wisdom. In the poem the dragon princess composed by Rilke, he says, “no traps or snares are set about us, and there is nothing which should intimidate or worry us.” he explains that people are worried by the terrible things surrounding them yet they may be dragons which if we face with courage may turn out to be helpless princesses who need help from us. He further says that when humans are faced with challenges and shortcomings in life, shy away from them instead of embracing them and learning how to deal with them due to worry of the unknown. He writes on how people are afraid of facing the challenges in life, yet that is the only way to gain wisdom; through experiencing everything that comes their way including the difficult moments that may turn out to be beneficial. Wisdom is acquired through the experiences that human beings go through in life each day whether good or bad hence they should not be afraid to confront the bad ones.

Persistence is the best asset to deal with overcoming worry, which hinders people from wisdom. Persistence is the ability to face challenges and difficult situations without giving up even when it seems hopeless to do so. Through persistence, people can overcome their worries and fears of facing terrible circumstances and instead transform these hard situations into positive outcomes. Rilke says in his poem that “And if we could only arrange our life according to that principle which counsels us that we must always hold to the difficult, then that which now seems to us the most alien will become what we most trust and find most faithful.” This shows that through persistence human beings can change their perception of things and situations that seem alien to them into faithful and trustworthy, outcomes they can use to gain wisdom. Persistence as an asset increases tolerance of the people in dealing with difficulties that they face in life and increases the urge to learn how to deal with such difficulties acquiring wisdom through that. Through persistence, people will be able to achieve what they intend to in this world despite the challenges and fear of the unknown that is present like the past myths people hear about.

In conclusion, Rilke, in his poem the dragon princess, explains how worry inhibits people from gaining knowledge because it makes them shy away from challenges and the unknown situations that come their way. He says that if people were to embrace these challenges and learn how to deal with them, they would become positive outcomes that would be used as a source of wisdom. Human kind would learn that what they fear is a great source of good things that would benefit them all. He strongly advocates for people to persist without fear through the terrible times for by doing so they stand to gain in the end for this situations that look like monsters are blessings in deed.