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

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 Paris.
(b) A military academy in Prague.
(c) A military acdemy in Oslo.
(d) A military academy in Germany.

3. What does Rilke advise the young poet to buy in letter three?
(a) A collection of the complete works of William Shakespeare.
(b) A collection of the complete works of Homer.
(c) A collection of the complete works of Jens Peter Jacobsen.
(d) A collection of the complete works of Sophocles.

4. Near the close of the fourth letter, Rilke mentions the positive aspects of the young poet's new profession. What are those positive aspects?
(a) Independence and solitude.
(b) Discipline and solitude.
(c) Discipline and self-sufficiency.
(d) Inedependence and self-sufficiency.

5. From where is the first letter from Rilke to the young poet postmarked?
(a) Munich.
(b) Prague.
(c) Paris.
(d) Berlin.

Short Answer Questions

1. In the second letter, who does Rilke cite as his artistic influences?

2. In the first letter, in what manner does Rilke suggest the young poet can tend to his personal growth?

3. In letter three, what does Rilke claim to be the most important element of becoming an artist?

4. How long ago has Rilke departed from the city he has left before arriving at the place where he composes the fourth letter?

5. What does Rilke call himself in relation to the young poet at the end of the first letter?

Short Essay Questions

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

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

3. 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?

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

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

6. 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?

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

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

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

10. 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?

(see the answer keys)

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