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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.
Short Answer Questions
1. What has brought Rilke to the place from where he writes the second letter?
2. Why does it take Rilke so long to respond to the young poet's second letter?
3. In the fourth letter, who does Rilke say is more similar than people think?
4. What does Rilke view as a challenge of the young poet's new profession?
5. In what season does Rilke write the second letter?
Short Essay Questions
1. What are Rilke's views on aesthetic criticism?
2. At the end of letter four, Rilke mentions the young poet's new profession. What is this profession?
3. What does Rilke mean when he tells the young poet in the first letter that the poet's work has "no individual style"?
4. What can the reader infer about the content of the first letter the young poet wrote to Rilke from reading Rilke's response?
5. 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..."?
6. What reason does Rilke give for advising the young poet against writing love poems?
7. 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?
8. What do letters two and three suggest about the young poet's interest in Rilke's advice?
9. Rilke says that artists remains unaware of their best qualities. Why is this?
10. In letter four, Rilke says that "everything that may some day be possible to many the solitary man can now prepare and build with his hands, that err less." What does this mean?
Essay Topics
Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:
Essay Topic 1
In what ways can Rilke's tenth letter be viewed as a sendoff of sorts to the young poet?
Essay Topic 2
Throughout the letters, and especially in letter eight, Rilke suggests that people are not truly living their lives--that their experiences are dulled from familiarity and security. What type of living is Rilke advocating? What is this type of living like?
Essay Topic 3
In letter eight, Rilke compares the sense of security to which individuals cling to the horrors that exist in the homes of the characters of Edgar Allan Poe's stories. Analyze one of Poe's stories or longer poems using the life philosophies of Rilke as a lens through which to view the horrors of Poe's work as personal delusions and securities.
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This section contains 877 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) |
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