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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. Who does Rilke say is incapable of such loving as he calls for?
(a) Virgins.
(b) Women.
(c) Religious people.
(d) Young people.

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

3. In the Prologue, who does the commentator say is the other of the two greatest writers of the twentieth century?
(a) Samuel Beckett.
(b) James Joyce.
(c) Ernest Hemingway.
(d) F. Scott Fitzgerald.

4. In "The Seven Phallic Poems," who "grasps suddenly the bull bud of his vitality"?
(a) The gardener.
(b) The soldier.
(c) The rose-gatherer.
(d) The maiden.

5. What is the title of the poem which begins, "From indescribable transformation flash / such creations--: Feel! and trust!"?
(a) "Greek Love-Talk."
(b) "Music."
(c) "Gong."
(d) "Magic."

Short Answer Questions

1. In the second of "The Seven Phallic Poems," who does the poet claim is "drawing my seed up into an abrupt tree"?

2. What does Rilke write about in conjunction with love and sex in Part VI of "The Seven Phallic Poems"?

3. This first poem in "Rilke's Poems on Other Difficulties" is titled what?

4. Writing of one of his principle motifs, the poet writes, "Transform stamen on stamen, / fill your interior _____."

5. In what year did Rilke write "The Seven Phallic Poems"?

(see the answer key)

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