View a FREE sample

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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What aspect of human life does Rilke say is most burdened with conventions?
(a) Love.
(b) Inspiration.
(c) Marriage.
(d) Religion.

2. At the close of letter seven, what love does Rilke tell the young poet to remember?
(a) The love of his parents.
(b) The love of Rilke.
(c) The love of nature.
(d) The love of his first experience of solitude.

3. Rilke compares the existence of each individual to a room. What portion of that room do most people experience?
(a) The entire room.
(b) The doorway.
(c) A single aspect of that room, such as a corner or a window.
(d) The floor.

4. In what manner does Rilke say people should approach love?
(a) As students.
(b) As teachers.
(c) As children.
(d) As apprentices.

5. In what year is Rilke's sixth letter written?
(a) 1912.
(b) 1903.
(c) 1904.
(d) 1908.

6. What does Rilke say about "the dragons of our lives"?
(a) That they can be slain.
(b) That they may in fact be princesses.
(c) That they should be cast out of our lives.
(d) That they are necessary to make us strong.

7. What type of poem does Rilke enclose with the seventh letter?
(a) An epic.
(b) An ode.
(c) A sonnet.
(d) An elegy.

8. In letter seven, what does Rilke say that love should be?
(a) A union of one with another.
(b) A motivation for each person to become wholly him or herself.
(c) A balance of mental and physical.
(d) A selfless act.

9. What holiday is Rilke marking with his sixth letter?
(a) Easter.
(b) The New Year.
(c) All Saints Day.
(d) Christmas.

10. From where is Rilke writing the eighth letter?
(a) Fladie, Sweden.
(b) Paris, France.
(c) Jonsered, Sweden.
(d) Rome, Italy.

11. Why does Rilke believe that Rome makes one sad for the first few days of visiting it?
(a) It is too hot.
(b) It no longer has its ancient glory.
(c) Its reminders of ages past are oppressive.
(d) It is too busy.

12. What does the sixth letter reveal about the state of the young poet?
(a) The young poet is sad and lonely.
(b) The young poet is relishing his solitude.
(c) The young poet is enjoying his new career.
(d) The young poet is suffering from writer's block.

13. What does Rilke assert about the nature of human existence that he claims is a fact whether we think so or not?
(a) We are solitary.
(b) We are creative beings.
(c) We are made in God's image.
(d) We are built to love.

14. From where does Rilke write the fifth letter?
(a) Florence, Italy.
(b) Paris, France.
(c) Rome, Italy.
(d) Bremen, Germany.

15. How does Rilke say individuals can help prepare for God's coming?
(a) Through prayer.
(b) Through acts of love.
(c) Through art.
(d) Through religious rituals.

Short Answer Questions

1. Rilke compares a person to a house and a sadness to what?

2. What type of sadness does Rilke call "dangerous"?

3. What is the young poet's military rank?

4. Rilke says that eventually women no longer are the opposite of men, but something else. What are they?

5. Rilke tells the young poet that in regard to his sickness, he is a sick man, a convalescent, and what else?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 537 words (approx. 2 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample