View a FREE sample

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

2. From where does Rilke instruct the young poet to derive inspiration?
(a) Nature, common human experiences, and memories.
(b) Music.
(c) The political climate of the times.
(d) The words of other poets.

3. 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?
(a) Not as enemies, but as friends.
(b) Not as lovers, but as friends.
(c) Not as sexual objects, but as human beings.
(d) Not as opposites, but as human beings.

4. What does Rilke thank the young poet for at the end of the first letter?
(a) The young poet's confidence.
(b) The young poet's talent.
(c) The young poet's effort.
(d) The young poet's admiration.

5. Which letter from the young poet is Rilke responding to with his fourth letter?
(a) The young poet's letter of Easter, 1907.
(b) The young poet's letter of Easter, 1903.
(c) The young poet's letter of May 2, 1908.
(d) The young poet's letter of May 2, 1903.

Short Answer Questions

1. What does Rilke say about everything that is serious?

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

3. Besides works by that writer, what other book does Rilke always have accessible to him?

4. How does Rilke say that humans should approach physical pleasure?

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

Short Essay Questions

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

2. 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?

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

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

5. What can be inferred about Rilke's health from letters two and three?

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

7. 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?

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

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

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

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 848 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample