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This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

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

2. The poem "Gong" makes use of what literary technique?
(a) Irony.
(b) Onomatapeia.
(c) Segmentation.
(d) Absurdism.

3. "Woman's Lament II" ends with the line, "and the ________ is not in vain."
(a) Nightingale.
(b) Butterfly.
(c) Sparrow.
(d) Ballerina.

4. Rilke writes in his letters on love, "Once we were ______ in every part, now we are that in one part only."
(a) Sex.
(b) Children.
(c) Love.
(d) Nature.

5. Rilke's letters are examples of what?
(a) Verisimilitude.
(b) Verse.
(c) Irony.
(d) Prose.

6. Rilke is regarded in his letters and his writing to be distinctly ahead of his time in what respect?
(a) Religion.
(b) Politics.
(c) Writing.
(d) Feminism.

7. The commentator notes that all of the poems in "Rilke's Poems on Love" were written when he was how old?
(a) His fifties.
(b) His forties and fifties.
(c) His twenties.
(d) His thirties and forties.

8. What is the name of the artists' colony in Russian where Rilke was further influenced in his writing?
(a) Round Table.
(b) Worpswede.
(c) Schnizwald.
(d) Avondale.

9. Who is one of the earliest figures of feminism who was friends with Rilke?
(a) Ellen Kay.
(b) Victoria Ellison.
(c) Sarah Albright.
(d) Ellen Page.

10. What does Rilke write in his first letter, imploring the reader to try to love?
(a) The answers.
(b) The questions themselves.
(c) Dignity.
(d) The truth.

11. Of what fruit does Rilke write of in "The Poet Praises"?
(a) Banana.
(b) Orange.
(c) Strawberry.
(d) Grapefruit.

12. Whose influence helped to expand Rilke's vision, according to Mood?
(a) Beckett.
(b) Donne.
(c) Nietzsche.
(d) Goethe.

13. Which poem begins with the line, "And the last perhaps will not return"?
(a) "The Lovers."
(b) "Woman's Lament II."
(c) "Woman's Lament I."
(d) "Greek Love-Talk."

14. What literary term applies to the following: "exhaust yourself like a spring"?
(a) Irony.
(b) Metaphor.
(c) Alliteration.
(d) Simile.

15. What does Rilke accuse of vilifying sensuality and love?
(a) Womankind.
(b) The government.
(c) Mankind.
(d) Christianity.

Short Answer Questions

1. What does the translator comment in the Prologue that his translations of Rilke are?

2. 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?

3. In Part IV of "The Seven Phallic Poems," the poet writes, "You don't know ______, with your diffidence."

4. In what year did Rilke write the "Woman's Lament" poems?

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

(see the answer keys)

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