Wedding reading
On love, from Letters to a Young Poet
Rainer Maria Rilke
“On love, from Letters to a Young Poet” by Rainer Maria Rilke is a prose reading read at a wedding ceremony. It takes about a minute and a half read aloud, usually by a guest reader. It is still in copyright, so the words are not reprinted here — the reader brings a printed copy.
Why the words are not printed here
The German is public domain; the English you have almost certainly read is not — modern translations are their own copyrighted work. Print the translation the couple chose and have the reader bring it.
Pieces still in copyright are listed by title and author only — we name them and tell you where to get them, but we do not reproduce the words. Public-domain text is printed in your script in full.
What it is about
The "two solitudes" passage. Which translation matters a great deal here.
Read at a wedding ceremony. Themes: two solitudes · protecting each other’s solitude · literary · introverts.
Questions about reading it aloud
How long does “On love, from Letters to a Young Poet” take to read aloud?
“On love, from Letters to a Young Poet” takes about a minute and a half read aloud at a ceremony pace, which is slower than conversation — roughly 130 words a minute. That is the figure the run-sheet uses when it works out the timing for the whole service.
Who usually reads “On love, from Letters to a Young Poet”?
Usually a guest reader rather than the officiant. “On love, from Letters to a Young Poet” runs about a minute and a half, which is a manageable amount to hand to a friend or family member. Give them a printed copy of their own, in a size they can read without their glasses, and tell them where to stand and how you will introduce them.
Can “On love, from Letters to a Young Poet” be printed in a ceremony script?
Not by us. It is still in copyright, so we name it and point you at a copy rather than reprinting the words. The German is public domain; the English you have almost certainly read is not — modern translations are their own copyrighted work. Print the translation the couple chose and have the reader bring it.
A reading is two minutes of the hour.
The rest is the welcome, the vows, the ring exchange, the pronouncement — and the timing that holds them together. Answer some questions about the couple and get the whole ceremony, written out, with this reading in its place.
Other readings that suit the same service
- On Marriage, from The Propheta minute and a halfKahlil Gibran
- On Becoming Real, from The Velveteen Rabbit55 secondsMargery Williams
- from Extracts from Adam's Diary — selected entriesa minute and a halfMark Twain
- from The Importance of Being Earnest, Act Itwo minutesOscar Wilde
- On marriage, from The Devil's Dictionary — five definitionsa minute and a halfAmbrose Bierce
- Uniona minute and a halfRobert Fulghum