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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 take comfort in if he feels uneasy in his new profession?
(a) Solitude.
(b) Prayer.
(c) Reading.
(d) Writing.

2. What does Rilke advise the poet to do in regard to his efforts to get published?
(a) Send his poems to Rilke's publisher.
(b) Send his poems to as many magazines as possible.
(c) Discontinue his efforts to receive feedback from publishers and other external parties.
(d) Send his poems to the United States.

3. In the first letter, what does Rilke cite as the most disruptive hindrance to the young poet's progress?
(a) Drinking.
(b) Romantic entanglements.
(c) Non-artistic work.
(d) Looking for others to answer the poet's own personal questions.

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

5. In the second letter, who does Rilke cite as his artistic influences?
(a) Shakespeare and Beethoven.
(b) Jens Peter Jacobsen and the writer of the Psalms.
(c) Jens Peter Jacobsen and Auguste Rodin.
(d) The writer of the Psalms and Shakespeare.

Short Answer Questions

1. From where is the first letter from Rilke to the young poet postmarked?

2. In the third letter, Rilke requests that the young poet avoid something. What is it that he asks the poet to avoid?

3. To what does Rilke compare artistic experience?

4. What is Rilke's salutation at the end of the first letter?

5. What does Rilke advise the young poet to buy in letter three?

Short Essay Questions

1. What can the reader infer about the content of the first letter the young poet wrote to Rilke from reading Rilke's response?

2. What does Rilke mean when, in letter four, he says that man "might be more reverent toward his fruitfulness, which is but one, whether it seems mental or physical..."?

3. What type of writing does Rilke advocate for?

4. Rilke tells the young poet in the first letter that the only way for the poet to improve his writing is to "go into yourself". What does this mean?

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

6. What does Rilke mean when, in letter four, he says that physical pleasure is not bad, but that physical pleasure is often "misuse[d] and squander[ed]"?

7. Rilke places considerable emphasis on the necessary nature of art. What does he mean when he says that a poet is only a poet if he would die if he didn't write?

8. What can we infer from the fact that in the first letter, Rilke's closing salutation is with "with sympathy?"

9. Rilke says that artists remains unaware of their best qualities. Why is this?

10. What does Rilke mean when, in the first letter, he suggests that critical commentary on art results in "happy misunderstandings"?

(see the answer keys)

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