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This quiz consists of 5 multiple choice and 5 short answer questions through Poems on Other Difficulties.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. In the seventh of "The Seven Phallic Poems," what does the poet write that his "semen climbs gladly like"?
(a) A tower.
(b) A god.
(c) A child.
(d) A tree.

2. In the Prologue, who does the commentator say is the other of the two greatest writers of the twentieth century?
(a) F. Scott Fitzgerald.
(b) Samuel Beckett.
(c) James Joyce.
(d) Ernest Hemingway.

3. In what year did Rilke write the "Woman's Lament" poems?
(a) 1925.
(b) 1911.
(c) 1865.
(d) 1935.

4. In a very short untitled poem, Rilke writes, "The voices warned me so I _____."
(a) Desisted.
(b) Ran.
(c) Ceased.
(d) Wept.

5. In "From the Cycle: Nights," Rilke personifies "Night" as what?
(a) A bird.
(b) A lover.
(c) A doom.
(d) A river.

Short Answer Questions

1. In one untitled poem of "Rilke's Poems on Other Difficulties," Rilke writes, "Play the ____, the single ones, quickly and you..."

2. What literary term applies to the following: "exhaust yourself like a spring"?

3. What does Rilke write in Part V of "The Seven Phallic Poems" has "weakened you and me"?

4. The commentator regards that Rilke's "justly famed deep spirituality" is rooted essentially in what?

5. What term describes the following example from "The Seven Phallic Poems"? "Daring landscape, such as an inner-seer/beholds in a crystal ball."

(see the answer key)

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