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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 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 because the community is very supportive of his writing.
(c) Rilke has moved there to get well.
(d) Rilke has moved there to be close to his family.

2. In what year does Rilke write the fourth letter?
(a) 1912.
(b) 1908.
(c) 1905.
(d) 1903.

3. In the fourth letter, where does Rilke instruct the young poet to look for answers to his deepest questions?
(a) Nature.
(b) Creativity.
(c) Poetry.
(d) Sexuality.

4. What is Rilke's salutation at the end of the first letter?
(a) "Yours faithfully and with all sympathy."
(b) "Yours faithfully."
(c) "Warmest regards."
(d) "With gratitude and happiness."

5. In the third letter, Rilke requests that the young poet avoid something. What is it that he asks the poet to avoid?
(a) Drinking.
(b) Reading aesthetic criticism.
(c) Reading contemporary literature.
(d) Studying science.

Short Answer Questions

1. What does Rilke believe is wrong with sex?

2. In letter three, how many books does Rilke say he has published?

3. How does Professor Horacek know Rilke?

4. What does Rilke suggest that all humans share in, both women and men?

5. What does Rilke view as a challenge of the young poet's new profession?

Short Essay Questions

1. What are Rilke's views on aesthetic criticism?

2. Rilke advises the young poet to be cautious about the way sex can change behavior. In what way does he suggest that sex changes people?

3. 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..."?

4. What does Rilke mean when he says in letter three that sex "is not sufficiently human, [but] is only male"?

5. At the end of letter four, Rilke mentions the young poet's new profession. What is this profession?

6. What type of writing does Rilke advocate for?

7. What does Rilke claim is more permanent than human life?

8. 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?

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

10. 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?

(see the answer keys)

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