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

Multiple Choice Questions

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

2. What does Rilke write about in conjunction with love and sex in Part VI of "The Seven Phallic Poems"?
(a) Death.
(b) Guilt.
(c) Worry.
(d) Redemption.

3. Writing of one of his principle motifs, the poet writes, "Transform stamen on stamen, / fill your interior _____."
(a) Rose.
(b) Death.
(c) Heart.
(d) Pitcher.

4. The first collection of poems in "Rilke's Poems on Love" is titled what?
(a) "Duino Elegies."
(b) "The Seven Phallic Poems."
(c) "Rites to Passage."
(d) "Poems to Orpheus."

5. In the last of the untitled love poems, the poet writes, "Do you feel, distant dear miss, / since you are _______ me."
(a) Caressing.
(b) Kissing.
(c) Reading.
(d) Loving.

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

7. Rilke writes of love that "So whoever loves must try to act as if he had a _________."
(a) Great work.
(b) Fragile jewel.
(c) Holy thing.
(d) Priceless possession.

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

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

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

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

12. In Part III of "The Seven Phallic Poems," Rilke writes, "Granted by you, the image of the ____ stands/at the gentle crossroads under my clothes."
(a) God.
(b) Flower.
(c) Tower.
(d) Madonna.

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

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

15. In "From the Cycle: Nights," Rilke personifies "Night" as what?
(a) A river.
(b) A lover.
(c) A bird.
(d) A doom.

Short Answer Questions

1. What does the commentator say was Rilke's mode of exploration during "the long periods between his well-known great creative bursts of energy"?

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

3. In Rilke's one-line poem of the love poems, he writes, "This is the mute-mouthed mounting of the ______."

4. In the poem, "From the Cycle: Nights," Rilke writes, "Night. Oh you in depths ______."

5. What book of Simone de Beauvoir's does the commentator say led him to "militant feminism" in the Introduction to "Rilke's Letters on Love"?

(see the answer keys)

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