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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What does Rilke write that he holds to be "the highest task of a bond between two people"?
(a) That they should hold no limits to their connection.
(b) That they must live closely.
(c) That they should stand alone.
(d) That they should each stand guard over the solitude of the other.

2. What is the only novel that Rilke wrote?
(a) Letters to a Young Poet.
(b) The Grapes of Wrath.
(c) The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge.
(d) Lessons of a Forgotten Soul.

3. In the excerpt of Rilke's letter in the Introduction, what essay does he refer to reading?
(a) Homer's Odyssey.
(b) Cicero's Symposium.
(c) Plato's Symposium.
(d) Platos' Cave.

4. What does Rilke comment in the excerpt from the Introduction that Eros "cannot be"?
(a) Fair.
(b) Joyful.
(c) Faithful.
(d) Ugly.

5. In the poem, "Mausoleum," what punctuation does Rilke use in a nontraditional way, at the beginning of two lines?
(a) A period.
(b) A comma.
(c) A semicolon.
(d) A colon.

Short Answer Questions

1. Over what does the poet write, "we will together contend" in "Greek Love-Talk"?

2. One of the shortest of the love poems consists of the following two lines: "Also to affirm even ______ / like a thing."

3. According to Rilke, there is "scarcely anything more difficult" than what?

4. What does Rilke suggest that the young are apt to do in love?

5. Two-thirds of the poems in "Rilke's Poems on Other Difficulties" come from what year?

(see the answer key)

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