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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. How old was Rilke when he wrote "The Dragon-Princess"?
(a) His thirties.
(b) His teens.
(c) His forties.
(d) His twenties.

2. What word is difficult in translation of Rilke's epitaph because of a pun on the word in the original German?
(a) Zu.
(b) Niemandes.
(c) Widerspruch.
(d) Lidern.

3. What does Rilke write one "must also have been beside" in "Blood-Remembering"?
(a) The young.
(b) The dying.
(c) The loving.
(d) The newborn.

4. What does Rilke write "that rushed along on high and flew with all the stars"?
(a) Days of wandering.
(b) Nights of travel.
(c) Kisses of beauty.
(d) Childbirth.

5. From what comes the line, "Killing is a form of our wandering mourning"?
(a) Letters to a Young Poet.
(b) Sonnets to Orpheus.
(c) Duino Elegies.
(d) The Seven Phallic Poems.

6. In "The Dragon-Princess," Rilke writes "That mankind has in this sense been cowardly has done life endless _____."
(a) Harm.
(b) Sorrow.
(c) Error.
(d) Death.

7. What must "one know" in order to write a single verse?
(a) The rivers.
(b) The women.
(c) The world.
(d) The animals.

8. Rilke writes, "So for him who becomes solitary, all distances, all measures ____."
(a) Change.
(b) Grow.
(c) Evolve.
(d) Expand.

9. What has the fear of the inexplicable also impoverished, according to Rilke?
(a) Trust in God.
(b) Belief in self.
(c) Relationships between human beings.
(d) Relationships with God.

10. In "The Dragon-Princess," Rilke writes, "It is not _____ alone that is responsible for human relationships repeating themselves from case to case..."
(a) Luxury.
(b) Fear.
(c) Desperation.
(d) Inertia.

11. Rilke writes in "Blood-Remembering" that one must feel what?
(a) How the sheep sigh.
(b) How the birds fly.
(c) How the women weep.
(d) How the lights shine.

12. How much earlier than his death did Rilke pen his epitaph?
(a) Three years.
(b) Two months.
(c) Fifteen months.
(d) One month.

13. Mood writes in the Epilogue that one translator said of Rilke's controversial line, "even ____would not bother to satirize."
(a) Brockett.
(b) Rodin.
(c) Van Gogh.
(d) Voltaire.

14. What author does Rilke refer to in "The Dragon-Princess"?
(a) Shelley.
(b) Poe.
(c) Byron.
(d) Nietzsche.

15. From what comes the line, "Murderers are / easily comprehended"?
(a) Sonnets to Orpheus.
(b) Duino Elegies.
(c) Letters to a Young Poet.
(d) The Seven Phallic Poems.

Short Answer Questions

1. How does the poet refer to childhood days to recall in "Blood-Remembering"?

2. Rilke writes in "Blood-Remembering" that quite at the end of life, one might be able to write how many verses that were good?

3. In what year did Rilke write his own epitaph?

4. Rilke writes in "The Dragon-Princess," He would think himself falling or hurled _________, or exploded into a thousand pieces."

5. In what year was Rilke's only full-length novel completed?

(see the answer keys)

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