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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's sixth letter written?
(a) 1904.
(b) 1903.
(c) 1912.
(d) 1908.

2. What holiday is Rilke marking with his sixth letter?
(a) Easter.
(b) The New Year.
(c) Christmas.
(d) All Saints Day.

3. Rilke compares a person to a house and a sadness to what?
(a) A yard.
(b) A door.
(c) A table.
(d) A guest.

4. Why has it taken so long for Rilke to reply to the young poet with his seventh letter?
(a) Rilke had left the letter in a different city.
(b) Rilke had been ill.
(c) Rilke had forgotten about the letter.
(d) Rilke had been traveling.

5. What two aspects of human life does Rilke claim have no explanation?
(a) Forgiveness and hatred.
(b) Love and art.
(c) Birth and death.
(d) Death and love.

Short Answer Questions

1. What is the young poet's military rank?

2. At the close of letter seven, what love does Rilke tell the young poet to remember?

3. What does Rilke say in the seventh letter about things that are difficult?

4. Rilke says that eventually women no longer are the opposite of men, but something else. What are they?

5. What does Rilke say about careers in the sixth letter?

Short Essay Questions

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

2. What does Rilke say about fear?

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

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

5. What does Rilke say that the average person will continue to do in regards to love?

6. What is Rilke's definition of love?

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. Explain what Rilke means when in letter eight he says that sadness "are the moments when something new has entered into us".

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

(see the answer keys)

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