--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: One should wait, and gather meaning and…" description: "\"“One should wait, and gather meaning and sweetness a whole life long, a long life if possible, and then, at the very end, one might perhaps be able to ..." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/3f8/rainer-maria-rilke-193_every-morning_one-should-wait-and-gather-meaning-and-s_1720421.jpg" --- # One should wait, and gather meaning and sweetness a whole… ![“One should wait, and gather meaning and sweetness a whole life long, a long life if possible, and then, at the very end, one might perhaps be able to write ten good lines. For verses are not feelings, as people imagine – those one has early enough; they are experiences. In order to write a single…” quote by Rainer Maria Rilke](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/3f8/rainer-maria-rilke-193_every-morning_one-should-wait-and-gather-meaning-and-s_1720421.jpg) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/3f8/rainer-maria-rilke-193_every-morning_one-should-wait-and-gather-meaning-and-s_1720421.jpg) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/3f8/rainer-maria-rilke-193_every-morning_one-should-wait-and-gather-meaning-and-s_1720421.jpg) > ““One should wait, and gather meaning and sweetness a whole life long, a long life if possible, and then, at the very end, one might perhaps be able to write ten good lines. For verses are not feelings, as people imagine – those one has early enough; they are experiences. In order to write a single line, one must see a great many cities, people and things, have an understanding of animals, sense how it is to be a bird in flight, and know the manner in which the little flowers open every morning. In one's mind there must be regions unknown, meetings unexpected and long-anticipated partings, to which one can cast back one's thoughts – childhood days that still retain their mystery, parents inevitably hurt when one failed to grasp the pleasure they offered (and which another would have taken pleasure in), childhood illnesses beginning so strangely with so many profound and intractable transformations, days in peacefully secluded rooms and mornings beside the sea, and the sea itself, seas, nights on journeys that swept by on high and flew past filled with stars – and still it is not enough to be able to bring all this to mind. One must have memories of many nights of love, no two alike; of the screams of women in labour; and of pale, white, sleeping women in childbed, closing again. But one must also have been with the dying, have sat in a room with the dead with the window open and noises coming in at random. And it is not yet enough to have memories. One has to be able to forget them, if there are a great many, and one must have great patience, to wait for their return. For it is not the memories in themselves that are of consequence. Only when they are become the very blood within us, our every look and gesture, nameless and no longer distinguishable from our inmost self, only then, in the rarest of hours, can the first word of a poem arise in their midst and go out from among them. ”” [Rainer Maria Rilke](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rainer-maria-rilke/) ## About This Quote This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation. True poetic insight requires vast experience, deep memory, and the ability to forget, blending life’s moments into art. **In simple terms:** Poetry needs many experiences, memory, and forgetting. Key Takeaway Live fully, then write from the heart. Themes experience memory creativity Mood melancholic hopeful Type philosophical inspirational When to use this quote - travel - parenting - death - love - solitude Key Concepts existentialism artistic process Questions to Reflect On - How can one cultivate depth without endless travel? - What role does forgetting play in creation? A Different Perspective The demand for exhaustive experience may be unattainable for many. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet [Every morning](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/every-morning/) [Great man](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/great-man/) [Life](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/life/) [Long life](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/long-life/) [Poem](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/poem/) [Poetry](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/poetry/) [Verses](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/verses/) ## Related quotes > [with poems one accomplishes so little when one writes them early. One should hold off and gather sense and sweetness a whole life long,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rainer-maria-rilke/with-poems-one-accomplishes-so-little-when-one-writes-them-early-one/) [Rainer Maria Rilke](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rainer-maria-rilke/) > [Every word was once a poem. Every new relation is a new word.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ralph-waldo-emerson/every-word-was-once-a-poem-every-new-relation-is-a-new-word/) [Ralph Waldo Emerson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ralph-waldo-emerson/) > [When you are writing a spoken word poem, the tools you're working with are your voice, your body, how it's going to sound to…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/phil-kay/when-you-are-writing-a-spoken-word-poem-the-tools-you-re-working-with/) Phil Kay > [The heft of a life in the hands grows both lighter and weightier. Over time, my life has become more saturated with its shape…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jane-hirshfield/the-heft-of-a-life-in-the-hands-grows-both-lighter-and-weightier-over/) [Jane Hirshfield](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jane-hirshfield/) > [“Every poet will forever try to write the greatest poem ever written, I have found that this kind of poem can be written with…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/michael-jones/every-poet-will-forever-try-to-write-the-greatest-poem-ever-written-i/) [Michael Jones](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/michael-jones/) > [It does not need that a poem should be long. Every word was once a poem.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ralph-waldo-emerson/it-does-not-need-that-a-poem-should-be-long-every-word-was-once-a-poem/) [Ralph Waldo Emerson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ralph-waldo-emerson/) > [Every word was once a poem.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ralph-waldo-emerson/every-word-was-once-a-poem/) [Ralph Waldo Emerson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ralph-waldo-emerson/) > [The first spoken word poem I ever wrote was when I was 14 and I wrote it because I was accidentally signed up for…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/sarah-kay/the-first-spoken-word-poem-i-ever-wrote-was-when-i-was-14-and-i-wrote/) [Sarah Kay](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/sarah-kay/) > [My first spoken word poem, packed with all the wisdom of a 14-year-old, was about the injustice of being seen as unfeminine. The poem…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/sarah-kay/my-first-spoken-word-poem-packed-with-all-the-wisdom-of-a-14-year-old/) [Sarah Kay](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/sarah-kay/) > [One particular aspect of Siddhartha’s revelation of the outside world has always struck me. Quite possibly he lived his first thirty years without any…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/daniel-tammet/one-particular-aspect-of-siddhartha-s-revelation-of-the-outside-world/) [Daniel Tammet](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/daniel-tammet/) > [My early childhood equipped me really well for my portrait work: The quick encounter, where you are not going to know the subject for…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/annie-leibovitz/my-early-childhood-equipped-me-really-well-for-my-portrait-work-the/) [Annie Leibovitz](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/annie-leibovitz/) > [I get my drive and determination from just winning and playing tennis. I know if I don't work, I won't get rewarded. It was…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/samantha-stosur/i-get-my-drive-and-determination-from-just-winning-and-playing-tennis/) [Samantha Stosur](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/samantha-stosur/) > [All life long, the same questions, the same answers.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/samuel-beckett/all-life-long-the-same-questions-the-same-answers/) [Samuel Beckett](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/samuel-beckett/) > [Keep your mouth shut, and close up the doors of sight and sound, and as long as you live you will have no vexation.…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/laozi/keep-your-mouth-shut-and-close-up-the-doors-of-sight-and-sound-and-as/) [Laozi](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/laozi/) > [Give life long enough and it will solve all your problems, including the one of being alive.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/colum-mccann/give-life-long-enough-and-it-will-solve-all-your-problems-including/) [Colum McCann](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/colum-mccann/) ## More by Rainer Maria Rilke > [The artist's experience lies so unbelievably close to the sexual, to its pain and its pleasure, that the two phenomena are really just different…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rainer-maria-rilke/the-artist-s-experience-lies-so-unbelievably-close-to-the-sexual-to/) [Rainer Maria Rilke](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rainer-maria-rilke/) > [“Out of infinite longings rise finite deeds like weak fountains, falling back just in time and trembling. And yet, what otherwise remains silent, our…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rainer-maria-rilke/out-of-infinite-longings-rise-finite-deeds-like-weak-fountains/) [Rainer Maria Rilke](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rainer-maria-rilke/) > [“I love the dark hours of my being. My mind deepens into them. There I can find, as in old letters, the days of…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rainer-maria-rilke/i-love-the-dark-hours-of-my-being-my-mind-deepens-into-them-there-i/) [Rainer Maria Rilke](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rainer-maria-rilke/) > [“A complete sharing between two people is an impossibility and whenever it seems, nevertheless, to exist, it is a narrowing, a mutual agreement which…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rainer-maria-rilke/a-complete-sharing-between-two-people-is-an-impossibility-and/) [Rainer Maria Rilke](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rainer-maria-rilke/) > [“But this is what ... people are so often and disastrously wrong in doing: they (who by their very nature are impatient) fling themselves…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rainer-maria-rilke/but-this-is-what-people-are-so-often-and-disastrously-wrong-in-doing/) [Rainer Maria Rilke](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rainer-maria-rilke/) > [“If there is nothing you can share with other people, try to be close to Things. Things will not abandon you. The nights are…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rainer-maria-rilke/if-there-is-nothing-you-can-share-with-other-people-try-to-be-close/) [Rainer Maria Rilke](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rainer-maria-rilke/) > [To be here is immense.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rainer-maria-rilke/to-be-here-is-immense/) [Rainer Maria Rilke](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rainer-maria-rilke/) > [“Sin is the most wonderfully roundabout path to God”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rainer-maria-rilke/sin-is-the-most-wonderfully-roundabout-path-to-god/) [Rainer Maria Rilke](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rainer-maria-rilke/) > [Swells, Marina? we ocean, depths, Marina? we sky!](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rainer-maria-rilke/swells-marina-we-ocean-depths-marina-we-sky/) [Rainer Maria Rilke](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rainer-maria-rilke/) > [“The point of marriage is not to create a quick commonality by tearing down all boundaries; on the contrary, a good marriage is one…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rainer-maria-rilke/the-point-of-marriage-is-not-to-create-a-quick-commonality-by-tearing/) [Rainer Maria Rilke](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rainer-maria-rilke/) > [You life will find its own paths... and that they be good, rich, and wide is what I wish for you, more than I…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rainer-maria-rilke/you-life-will-find-its-own-paths-and-that-they-be-good-rich-and-wide/) [Rainer Maria Rilke](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rainer-maria-rilke/) > [I do not want to be folded for where I am folded, there I am a lie.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rainer-maria-rilke/i-do-not-want-to-be-folded-for-where-i-am-folded-there-i-am-a-lie/) [Rainer Maria Rilke](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rainer-maria-rilke/) > [At no other time (than autumn) does the earth let itself be inhaled in one smell, the ripe earth; in a smell that is…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rainer-maria-rilke/at-no-other-time-than-autumn-does-the-earth-let-itself-be-inhaled-in/) [Rainer Maria Rilke](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rainer-maria-rilke/) > [“That is why the sadness passes: the new presence inside us, the presence that has been added, has entered our heart, has gone into…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rainer-maria-rilke/that-is-why-the-sadness-passes-the-new-presence-inside-us-the/) [Rainer Maria Rilke](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rainer-maria-rilke/) > [“Have patience with everything that remains unsolved in your heart. Try to love the questions themselves, like locked rooms, like books written in a…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rainer-maria-rilke/have-patience-with-everything-that-remains-unsolved-in-your-heart-try/) [Rainer Maria Rilke](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rainer-maria-rilke/) [Explore all 861 Rainer Maria Rilke quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rainer-maria-rilke/) ## More Every morning quotes > [One is a painter because one wants so-called freedom; one doesn't want to go to the office every morning.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/marcel-duchamp/one-is-a-painter-because-one-wants-so-called-freedom-one-doesn-t-want/) [Marcel Duchamp](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/marcel-duchamp/) > [“I believe in forever, and that’s what you and I are. We define eternity. This may sound cheesy, but you make me go there.…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gail-mchugh/i-believe-in-forever-and-that-s-what-you-and-i-are-we-define-eternity/) [Gail McHugh](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gail-mchugh/) > [“Scheduling should be done several times each day, beginning the night before and continuing at additional times the next day. Prioritize your assignments, exams,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/caroline-porter-thomas/scheduling-should-be-done-several-times-each-day-beginning-the-night/) [Caroline Porter Thomas](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/caroline-porter-thomas/) > [“A lot of habitually creative people have preparation rituals linked to the setting in which they choose to start their day. By putting themselves…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/twyla-tharp/a-lot-of-habitually-creative-people-have-preparation-rituals-linked/) [Twyla Tharp](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/twyla-tharp/) > [I wake up every morning fearing I am going to fail. But I love a challenge, big or small. There's so much I want…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/michelle-mone/i-wake-up-every-morning-fearing-i-am-going-to-fail-but-i-love-a/) [Michelle Mone](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/michelle-mone/) > [“Every morning I sit at the kitchen table over a tall glass of water swallowing pills. (So my hands won’t shake.) (So my heart…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jeanann-verlee/every-morning-i-sit-at-the-kitchen-table-over-a-tall-glass-of-water/) Jeanann Verlee > [“I once asked you what anxiety felt like, and you told me that most days left you riddled with bullet holes. Every morning came…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/d-a-s/i-once-asked-you-what-anxiety-felt-like-and-you-told-me-that-most/) d.a.s > [I believe there should be a better way to start each day...instead of waking up every morning...](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anonymous/i-believe-there-should-be-a-better-way-to-start-each-day-instead-of/) [Anonymous](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anonymous/) > [ To keep my head healthy, \[I'm\] trying to meditate every morning, which is something I'm sort of getting into more, realizing that it's really… ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/erin-richards/to-keep-my-head-healthy-i-m-trying-to-meditate-every-morning-which-is/) [Erin Richards](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/erin-richards/) > [I may be forty, but every morning when I get up, I feel like a twenty-year-old. Unfortunately, there's never one around.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-orben/i-may-be-forty-but-every-morning-when-i-get-up-i-feel-like-a-twenty/) [Robert Orben](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/robert-orben/) > [“Whatand why were never questions for me. How was the only question. When I look back now, I realize that I never thought about…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/sadhguru/whatand-why-were-never-questions-for-me-how-was-the-only-question/) [Sadhguru](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/sadhguru/) > [Every morning when I pick up the newspaper and read about an earthquake in Japan or problems in European financial institutions, the first question…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/mary-schapiro/every-morning-when-i-pick-up-the-newspaper-and-read-about-an/) [Mary Schapiro](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/mary-schapiro/) > [“They would congratulate themselves every morning on keeping their integrity, and blame themselves each night for that missed opportunity.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/paulo-coelho/they-would-congratulate-themselves-every-morning-on-keeping-their/) [Paulo Coelho](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/paulo-coelho/) > [“If I could just get my partner to see me how she used to - to fall in love with me all over again…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/sloane-crosley/if-i-could-just-get-my-partner-to-see-me-how-she-used-to-to-fall-in/) [Sloane Crosley](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/sloane-crosley/) > [Fiction and non-fiction are only different techniques of story telling. For reasons I do not fully understand, fiction dances out of me. Non-fiction is…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/arundhati-roy/fiction-and-non-fiction-are-only-different-techniques-of-story/) [Arundhati Roy](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/arundhati-roy/) [Browse all 1,986 Every morning quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/every-morning/) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "“One should wait, and gather meaning and sweetness a whole life long, a long life if possible, and then, at the very end, one might perhaps be able to write ten good lines. For verses are not feelings, as people imagine – those one has early enough; they are experiences. In order to write a single line, one must see a great many cities, people and things, have an understanding of animals, sense how it is to be a bird in flight, and know the manner in which the little flowers open every morning. In one's mind there must be regions unknown, meetings unexpected and long-anticipated partings, to which one can cast back one's thoughts – childhood days that still retain their mystery, parents inevitably hurt when one failed to grasp the pleasure they offered (and which another would have taken pleasure in), childhood illnesses beginning so strangely with so many profound and intractable transformations, days in peacefully secluded rooms and mornings beside the sea, and the sea itself, seas, nights on journeys that swept by on high and flew past filled with stars – and still it is not enough to be able to bring all this to mind. One must have memories of many nights of love, no two alike; of the screams of women in labour; and of pale, white, sleeping women in childbed, closing again. But one must also have been with the dying, have sat in a room with the dead with the window open and noises coming in at random. And it is not yet enough to have memories. One has to be able to forget them, if there are a great many, and one must have great patience, to wait for their return. For it is not the memories in themselves that are of consequence. Only when they are become the very blood within us, our every look and gesture, nameless and no longer distinguishable from our inmost self, only then, in the rarest of hours, can the first word of a poem arise in their midst and go out from among them. ”", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Rainer Maria Rilke" }, "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rainer-maria-rilke/one-should-wait-and-gather-meaning-and-sweetness-a-whole-life-long-a/", "about": { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Every morning" }, "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rainer-maria-rilke/one-should-wait-and-gather-meaning-and-sweetness-a-whole-life-long-a/#quotation", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/3f8/rainer-maria-rilke-193_every-morning_one-should-wait-and-gather-meaning-and-s_1720421.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/3f8/rainer-maria-rilke-193_every-morning_one-should-wait-and-gather-meaning-and-s_1720421.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/3f8/rainer-maria-rilke-193_every-morning_one-should-wait-and-gather-meaning-and-s_1720421.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“One should wait, and gather meaning and sweetness a whole life long, a long life if possible, and then, at…” — Rainer Maria Rilke", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } }, { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Quotes", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Rainer Maria Rilke", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rainer-maria-rilke/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "“One should wait, and gather meaning...", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rainer-maria-rilke/one-should-wait-and-gather-meaning-and-sweetness-a-whole-life-long-a/" } ], "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rainer-maria-rilke/one-should-wait-and-gather-meaning-and-sweetness-a-whole-life-long-a/#breadcrumb" }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website", "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/", "publisher": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } }, { "@type": "Organization", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization", "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/", "logo": { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/themes/sq/assets/icons/icon-512.png", "width": 512, "height": 512 } } ] } ```