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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Which poem from "Rilke's Poems of Other Difficulties" speaks of a king?
(a) "Greek Love-Talk."
(b) "Mausoleum."
(c) "Gong."
(d) "Magic."

2. In the introduction to "Rilke's Poems on Love," the commentator states that Rilke's imagery is all what?
(a) Unnatural.
(b) Earthly.
(c) Surreal.
(d) Heavenly.

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

4. In the seventh of "The Seven Phallic Poems," what does the poet write that his "semen climbs gladly like"?
(a) A god.
(b) A child.
(c) A tree.
(d) A tower.

5. What does the translator comment in the Prologue that his translations of Rilke are?
(a) Eloquent.
(b) Exact.
(c) Inadequate.
(d) Beautiful.

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

7. In a very short untitled poem, Rilke writes, "The voices warned me so I _____."
(a) Ran.
(b) Wept.
(c) Ceased.
(d) Desisted.

8. In Rilke's first letter he suggests to the reader to "resolve to be always" what?
(a) Failing.
(b) Trying.
(c) Beginning.
(d) Ending.

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

10. In which poem does Rilke begin, "She who sleeps... To be so very awake, / near pure waking, that we into sleepers grow"?
(a) "The Lovers."
(b) "Magic."
(c) "Greek Love-Talk."
(d) "Music."

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

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

13. What term describes the following example from "The Seven Phallic Poems"? "Daring landscape, such as an inner-seer/beholds in a crystal ball."
(a) Contrast.
(b) Prose.
(c) Irony.
(d) Simile.

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

15. Who does the commentator compare Rilke's relationship toward sex to in the Introduction?
(a) Fitzgerald.
(b) Norman Mailer.
(c) Hemingway.
(d) Robert Frost.

Short Answer Questions

1. In one untitled poem from "Rilke's Poems of Other Difficulties," the poet writes, "Give me, oh earth, pure _____ / clay for the jug of tears."

2. In "Gravity," Rilke writes, "Yet from the _____ falls, / as from a stored up cloud, / abundant rain of force."

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

4. In "From the Cycle: Nights," Rilke personifies "Night" as what?

5. Which poem begins, "See how in their veins all becomes spirit"?

(see the answer keys)

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