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

Multiple Choice Questions

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

2. In one of the untitled love poems, Rilke writes, "What fields are fragrant as your ______?"
(a) Hands.
(b) Eyes.
(c) Kiss.
(d) Lips.

3. 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) Tower.
(c) Madonna.
(d) Flower.

4. 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."
(a) Resistent.
(b) Unmitigated.
(c) Reserved.
(d) Unmingling.

5. In "The Seven Phallic Poems," who "grasps suddenly the bull bud of his vitality"?
(a) The rose-gatherer.
(b) The gardener.
(c) The soldier.
(d) The maiden.

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

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

8. This first poem in "Rilke's Poems on Other Difficulties" is titled what?
(a) "The Poet Praises."
(b) "The Poet Speaks of Praising."
(c) "The Cycle of Night."
(d) "The Poems Praise."

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

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

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

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

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

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

15. In one untitled love poem, Rilke writes, "Drinking would seem too much, too ____, to me"?
(a) Plain.
(b) Overwhelming.
(c) Loving.
(d) Lustful.

Short Answer 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?"

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

3. Rilke writes in one untitled poem, "Like the _____ of quickly grown-up girls / one braids differently."

4. What sculptor had an influence on Rilke's writing?

5. Who does Rilke say is incapable of such loving as he calls for?

(see the answer keys)

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