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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Rilke writes in his letters, "Why have they made our sex _______, instead of making it the place for the festival of our competency?"
(a) Homeless.
(b) Loving.
(c) Dangerous.
(d) Carefree.

2. Rilke writes in "The Seven Phallic Poems," "We close ______ by means of our gazes."
(a) Our lips.
(b) Our blankets.
(c) A circle.
(d) The night.

3. In one untitled poem of "Rilke's Poems on Other Difficulties," Rilke writes, "Play the ____, the single ones, quickly and you..."
(a) Harps.
(b) Loves.
(c) Kisses.
(d) Deaths.

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

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

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

7. In what year was Rilke born?
(a) 1899.
(b) 1919.
(c) 1800.
(d) 1875.

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

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

10. What does the poet say in his untitled poem to do with that which, "offers itself to us with starlight"?
(a) Take it seriously.
(b) Cry with it.
(c) Let it be free.
(d) Hide from it.

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

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

13. In what amount of time did Rilke write over 1,600 lines of poetry plus a major essay during "the great giving"?
(a) Three months.
(b) Three weeks.
(c) Six months.
(d) Six weeks.

14. In what year did Rilke write "The Seven Phallic Poems"?
(a) 1925.
(b) 1905.
(c) 1940.
(d) 1915.

15. The commentator concludes the introduction to Rilke's love poetry in saying, "Rilke's poetry is somewhat precious and even _______."
(a) Romantic.
(b) Masculine.
(c) Ephemeral.
(d) Effiminate.

Short Answer Questions

1. The commentator regards that Rilke's "justly famed deep spirituality" is rooted essentially in what?

2. What does Rilke write that he holds to be "the highest task of a bond between two people"?

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

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

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

(see the answer keys)

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