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This quiz consists of 5 multiple choice and 5 short answer questions through Poems on Love.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What, with absinthe, "trickle through silent sieves of kisses of bitter essence"?
(a) Lust.
(b) Wormwood.
(c) Fairies.
(d) Arsenic.

2. What does Rilke suggest that the young are apt to do in love?
(a) Stand solitary.
(b) Marry for money.
(c) Give oneself away.
(d) Not listen to each other.

3. What did the commentator originally call the selections of Rilke's letters which he copied and gave out?
(a) "Notes on Love."
(b) "Letters of Love."
(c) "The Love Letters."
(d) "Rilke on Love."

4. In what year did Rilke write the "Woman's Lament" poems?
(a) 1911.
(b) 1865.
(c) 1925.
(d) 1935.

5. In Part IV of "The Seven Phallic Poems," the poet writes, "You don't know ______, with your diffidence."
(a) Gods.
(b) Towers.
(c) Sex.
(d) Love.

Short Answer Questions

1. Rilke writes in his letters, "Why have they made our sex _______, instead of making it the place for the festival of our competency?"

2. The commentator concludes the introduction to Rilke's love poetry in saying, "Rilke's poetry is somewhat precious and even _______."

3. What does Rilke write that he holds to be "the highest task of a bond between two people"?

4. Rilke remarks in his letters that his sex is "not directed only toward posterity" but is is what?

5. What does Rilke comment in the excerpt from the Introduction that Eros "cannot be"?

(see the answer key)

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