In 1916 Freud published an essay he wrote in 1915 (On transience), in which he reported his attempt to alleviate the anxiety of a young poet, commonly recognized as Reiner Maria Rilke, for his feared impending "end of all things", that is for the disappearance of all the beauty of nature and art. It is argued that Freud's attempt failed because it was founded on a misunderstanding of the meaning of this poet's anxiety, and suggested that its recognition can be of advantage to psychoanalytic research.