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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. In "Rilke's Poems on Other Difficulties," Rilke writes in one poem from 1924, "We are not to know why / this and that _____ us."
(a) Masters.
(b) Strengthens.
(c) Empowers.
(d) Weakens.

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

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

4. According to Rilke, there is "scarcely anything more difficult" than what?
(a) To stand alone.
(b) To love one another.
(c) To leave one's love.
(d) To birth a child.

5. When did Rilke undertake "the great giving"?
(a) 1900.
(b) 1922.
(c) 1951.
(d) 1915.

Short Answer Questions

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

2. The translator claims that the poems in "Rilke's Poems on Love" deserve to take their place alongside whose great love poems?

3. What, with absinthe, "trickle through silent sieves of kisses of bitter essence"?

4. What is the title of the poem which begins, "Center, how you draw yourself out"?

5. In introducing Rilke's love poetry, the commentator notes that the poet's sexual and sensual undertones are mostly overlooked because of the striking impact of what?

(see the answer key)

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