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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What does Rilke advise the young poet to seek in regard to his sexuality?
(a) A sexuality that is passionate and fierce.
(b) A sexuality that is moderate.
(c) A sexuality that is the young poet's own, individualized sexuality.
(d) A sexuality that is based on creativity.

2. What acquaintance do Rilke and the young poet have in common?
(a) A distant cousin.
(b) Professor Horacek.
(c) James Joyce.
(d) Professor Kruppa.

3. Rilke says that there is only one thing that "can grasp and hold and be just toward" art. What is that thing?
(a) Open-mindedness.
(b) Creativity.
(c) Hope.
(d) Love.

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

5. Why isn't Rilke able to fill the request the young poet poses in his third letter to Rilke?
(a) Rilk is preparing to move.
(b) Rilke doesn't want to encourage the young poet.
(c) Rilke is too poor to afford to buy his books.
(d) Rilke is ill.

Short Answer Questions

1. From whom does Rilke advise the young poet to avoid seeking advice?

2. How does the young poet describe the writer and personal acquaintance Rilke mentions?

3. In the third letter, what does Rilke say he wishes he could do for the young poet but is unable to do?

4. Rilke indicates that in the future, men and women will approach each other differently than they do at the time of his writing. How will they approach each other?

5. In what year does Rilke write the fourth letter?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Rilke mean when, in letter four, he says that the intellect "lags marveling behind" the consciousness?

2. What does Rilke imply about the nature of good art when he tells the young poet that if poetry is inspired by the young poet's soul-searching, he does not need to ask anyone else if the poetry is good?

3. In letter four, Rilke says that "everything that may some day be possible to many the solitary man can now prepare and build with his hands, that err less." What does this mean?

4. What do letters two and three suggest about the young poet's interest in Rilke's advice?

5. What reason does Rilke give for advising the young poet against writing love poems?

6. What does Rilke imply about irony?

7. In letter four, Rilke says that "even the best err in words when they are meant to mean most delicate and almost inexpressible things." What does this mean?

8. What does Rilke mean when in letter three he says his books "no longer belong to me"?

9. What does Rilke mean when he tells the young poet in the first letter that the poet's work has "no individual style"?

10. What does Rilke say about the reading and re-reading of works by Jens Peter Jacobsen?

(see the answer keys)

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