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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. How does Rilke suggest one knows if one should not be a poet?

2. What works by the writer who Rilke revers most does Rilke always have accessible to him?

3. Where is Rilke when he writes the third letter?

4. What does Rilke advise the young poet to buy in letter three?

5. What city has Rilke departed from to come to the place where he composes the fourth letter?

Short Essay Questions

1. What do letters two and three suggest about the young poet's interest in Rilke's advice?

2. What does Rilke imply about irony?

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

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

5. What can we infer from the fact that in the first letter, Rilke's closing salutation is with "with sympathy?"

6. What does Rilke imply about the nature of good art when he tells the young poet that if poetry is inspired by the young poet's soul-searching, he does not need to ask anyone else if the poetry is good?

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

8. At the end of letter four, Rilke mentions the young poet's new profession. What is this profession?

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

10. What does Rilke mean when, in the fourth letter, he tells the young poet to "live" his unanswered questions?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

In what ways does Rilke present artistic and personal development as inextricable? Why are they inextricable? Are there any contradictions in this interconnectedness?

Essay Topic 2

What would the artistic and academic worlds be like without aesthetic criticism, as it seems Rilke would have it? Is Rilke able to reject the idea of aesthetic criticism only because he is an artist himself?

Essay Topic 3

Explain Rilke's ideas about the interrelationship of sex and art. How are sex and art similar? What should the role of sexuality be in the life of the artist?

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This section contains 800 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample