View a FREE sample

This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What does Rilke advise the young poet to take comfort in if he feels uneasy in his new profession?
(a) Prayer.
(b) Writing.
(c) Solitude.
(d) Reading.

2. Where is the young poet who is the recipient of the letters studying when he begins to receive correspondence from Rilke?
(a) A military academy in Prague.
(b) A military academy in Paris.
(c) A military acdemy in Oslo.
(d) A military academy in Germany.

3. What type of locale is Rilke in as he is writing the fourth letter to the young poet?
(a) A southern seaside.
(b) A rural plain.
(c) A city.
(d) A farm.

4. What has brought Rilke to the place from where he writes the second letter?
(a) Rilke has moved there to work on his writing.
(b) Rilke has moved there to get well.
(c) Rilke has moved there because the community is very supportive of his writing.
(d) Rilke has moved there to be close to his family.

5. Whose ideas about sex does Rilke advise the young poet to avoid subscribing to?
(a) Rilke's own.
(b) Richard Dehmel's.
(c) Professor Horacek's.
(d) Jens Peter Jacobsen's.

6. In the fourth letter, what does Rilke instruct the young poet to do regarding the poet's unanswered questions?
(a) Seek answers in solitude.
(b) Seek answers from artists.
(c) Love the questions.
(d) Seek answers from poetry.

7. What does the young poet write about in his third letter to Rilke that Rilke mentions in his letter back to the young poet?
(a) His decision to become a sculptor.
(b) The works of William Shakespeare.
(c) His first publication.
(d) The works of Jens Peter Jacobsen.

8. What is the name of the young poet who is the recipient of the letters contained in this volume?
(a) Xaver Rilke.
(b) Franz Xaver Kappus.
(c) Franz Rilke.
(d) Franz Horacek.

9. In the fourth letter, who does Rilke say is more similar than people think?
(a) Artists and farmers.
(b) Officers and prisoners.
(c) Humans and animals.
(d) Men and women.

10. What does Rilke call himself in relation to the young poet at the end of the first letter?
(a) A stranger.
(b) A sage.
(c) An expert.
(d) A master.

11. What does Rilke enclose with his third letter to the young poet?
(a) A note to Professor Horacek.
(b) Names of publishers to whom the young poet can send his work.
(c) A list of his most recent books.
(d) Copies of some of his poems.

12. To what does Rilke compare artistic experience?
(a) Transcendence.
(b) Religion.
(c) Epiphany.
(d) Sex.

13. How does the young poet describe the writer and personal acquaintance Rilke mentions?
(a) "Living and writing among the living."
(b) "Living and writing in heat."
(c) "Living and writing with blood."
(d) "Living and writing with true passion."

14. What is Rilke's primary criticism of the young poet's writing in the first letter?
(a) It does not rhyme.
(b) It lacks creativity.
(c) It is shallow.
(d) It has no individual style.

15. What does Rilke say about everything that is serious?
(a) "Everything serious can be found in art."
(b) "Everything serious is difficult."
(c) "Everything serious is actually simple."
(d) "Everything serious can be solved through love."

Short Answer Questions

1. How does Rilke say one can know if a poem is good?

2. Rilke challenges the young poet to ask himself a question regarding his writing. What is that question?

3. If the young poet discovers he should not be a poet, Rilke suggests that his inner examination will not be worthless. Why not?

4. What acquaintance do Rilke and the young poet have in common?

5. Where is Rilke when he writes the third letter?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 664 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample