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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. How does Rilke suggest one knows if one should not be a poet?
(a) If one does not like to read others' poetry.
(b) If one can live without writing.
(c) If one is bored by one's own writing.
(d) If one cannot get published after 100 tries.

2. What writer does Rilke revere most?
(a) Alfred Lord Tennyson.
(b) Jens Peter Jacobsen.
(c) Thomas Hardy.
(d) Ovid.

3. What does the young poet write about in his third letter to Rilke that Rilke mentions in his letter back to the young poet?
(a) His first publication.
(b) His decision to become a sculptor.
(c) The works of William Shakespeare.
(d) The works of Jens Peter Jacobsen.

4. In what season does Rilke write the second letter?
(a) Winter.
(b) Summer.
(c) Fall.
(d) Spring.

5. Why has Rilke come to the place where he composes the fourth letter?
(a) To write in solitude.
(b) To improve his health.
(c) To visit his family.
(d) To meet with his publisher.

Short Answer Questions

1. How does Rilke advise the young poet to view sex?

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

3. What does Rilke send to the young poet in reply to the poet's first letter?

4. What does Rilke advise the young poet to seek in regard to his sexuality?

5. In the first letter, what does Rilke cite as the most disruptive hindrance to the young poet's progress?

Short Essay Questions

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

2. 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]"?

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

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 are Rilke's views on aesthetic criticism?

6. 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?

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

8. 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..."?

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

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

(see the answer keys)

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