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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. In what year is Rilke writing the eighth letter?
(a) 1904.
(b) 1903.
(c) 1908.
(d) 1902.

2. What does Rilke advise the young poet to do if he cannot connect with people?
(a) Read more books.
(b) Learn an instrument.
(c) Develop his sense of empathy.
(d) Identify with nature, animals, and children.

3. What famous author does Rilke reference in letter eight?
(a) Edgar Allan Poe.
(b) Charlotte Perkins Gilman.
(c) Nathaniel Hawthorne.
(d) William Shakespeare.

4. To what does Rilke compare the realization about the true nature of human existence in letter eight?
(a) A single person left after a war.
(b) A person transported from one country to another.
(c) A person placed in the presence of God.
(d) A person is suddenly taken from his house and placed on top of a mountain.

5. In letter five, to where does Rilke say he is preparing to move?
(a) A summer house in a rural area away from the city.
(b) The city center.
(c) A beach house on the southern coast.
(d) A hotel.

Short Answer Questions

1. What does Rilke say is wrong with men?

2. In what year does Rilke write the fifth letter?

3. Rilke tells the young poet that in regard to his sickness, he is a sick man, a convalescent, and what else?

4. In letter eight, what does Rilke tell the young poet he must be careful with?

5. From where is Rilke's sixth letter written?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why does Rilke believe that women are responsible for a future change in humans' approach to romantic love?

2. What can be inferred about the mental and emotional state of the young poet from Rilke's reply in letter six?

3. What is Rilke's definition of love?

4. What can be inferred about the young poet's feelings toward his own solitude from Rilke's seventh letter?

5. Rilke says that young people can't understand love. What reason does he give?

6. In letter seven, Rilke compares an ideal romantic relationship to "two solitudes [that] protect and border and salute each other." What does he mean by this?

7. In letter six, Rilke encourages the young poet to maintain what he calls "a child's wise incomprehension" rather than joining in the "defensiveness and disdain" that are shared by the masses. What does he mean by this?

8. In letter five, Rilke comments on Rome and says that the first few days one is in Rome have "an oppressively sad effect" because everything in Rome is old and looking backward toward the past. How does this sentiment reflect Rilke's life philosophies as he has expressed them thus far in the book?

9. How does Rilke respond to the young poet's expression of fear that the young poet has lost God?

10. What does Rilke mean when, in letter seven, he says that in the future, femininity will not be "merely an opposite of the masculine, but. something in itself"?

(see the answer keys)

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