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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. Why does Rilke believe that Rome makes one sad for the first few days of visiting it?
2. In what season is Rilke writing the seventh letter?
3. What does Rilke say is wrong with the way most people approach love?
4. What does Rilke say is wrong with men?
5. Rilke compares the existence of each individual to a room. What portion of that room do most people experience?
Short Essay Questions
1. Rilke says that young people can't understand love. What reason does he give?
2. 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"?
3. What does Rilke say about the amount of beauty in Rome?
4. What does Rilke mean when he says that humans have no choice in deciding to be solitary?
5. In letter six, what does Rilke tell the young poet he should do if he is lonely?
6. 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?
7. What does Rilke mean when he says that the names of things are often misrepresented of what things are?
8. Why does Rilke advise the young poet "to be lonely and attentive when one is sad" in letter eight?
9. What can be inferred about the young poet's feelings toward his own solitude from Rilke's seventh letter?
10. 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?
Essay Topics
Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:
Essay Topic 1
Discuss the apparent contradiction between Rilke's separate emphases on solitude and meaningful sexual union with other human beings.
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
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 967 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) |
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