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This quiz consists of 5 multiple choice and 5 short answer questions through The Difficulty of Dying: Rilke's Self-Composed Epitaph.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. The commentator regards that Rilke's "justly famed deep spirituality" is rooted essentially in what?
(a) Sex.
(b) God.
(c) Heaven.
(d) Nature.

2. Speaking of solitude, Rilke writes, "We are solitary. We may _____ ourselves and act as though this were not so."
(a) Trick.
(b) Lie to.
(c) Deny.
(d) Delude.

3. In what poem does Rilke write "Life and death: they are one, at core intertwined"?
(a) "The Poet Praises."
(b) "The Poems Praise."
(c) "The Poet Speaks of Praising."
(d) "Woman's Lament II."

4. Mood writes in the Epilogue that one translator said of Rilke's controversial line, "even ____would not bother to satirize."
(a) Rodin.
(b) Brockett.
(c) Voltaire.
(d) Van Gogh.

5. What is the title of the poem which begins, "Center, how you draw yourself out"?
(a) "Music."
(b) "Force of Gravity."
(c) "Magic."
(d) "From the Cycle: Nights."

Short Answer Questions

1. What does Rilke write is a simplification of one's way of life?

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

3. What is the "romantic notion held by many young people," that Mood speaks of in introducing "Blood-Remembering"?

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

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

(see the answer key)

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