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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

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

2. In "The Poet Praises," Rilke writes, "Maidens, you warm ones, maidens, you mute and dumb, / dance the taste of the experienced _____!"
(a) Jams.
(b) Silence.
(c) Fruit.
(d) Berries.

3. In what year did Rilke write the "Woman's Lament" poems?
(a) 1865.
(b) 1925.
(c) 1911.
(d) 1935.

4. 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."

5. Two-thirds of the poems in "Rilke's Poems on Other Difficulties" come from what year?
(a) 1915.
(b) 1932.
(c) 1924.
(d) 1919.

Short Answer Questions

1. In a very short untitled poem, Rilke writes, "The voices warned me so I _____."

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

3. In one untitled love poem, Rilke writes, "Drinking would seem too much, too ____, to me"?

4. In the Prologue, who does the commentator say is the other of the two greatest writers of the twentieth century?

5. What does Rilke write in Part V of "The Seven Phallic Poems" has "weakened you and me"?

Short Essay Questions

1. Discuss the imagery and symbolism in the poems "From the Cycle: Nights" and "Force of Gravity."

2. In the untitled poems of "Rilke's Poems of Other Difficulties," how does Rilke write of the gods?

3. What does the commentator say regarding the transition to the 1960s' promiscuity and what this transition lacked?

4. What does Rilke say regarding the institute of marriage and solitude?

5. How does Rilke regard the difficulty of sex in his opening letters?

6. How does Mood describe Rilke's masculinity and femininity in his poetry? What does he say of Rilke's own life in this regard?

7. What does Rilke say of questions and answers in his first essay?

8. How does Rilke suggest sexuality should be regarded in terms of innocence? What does he say of children?

9. What metaphors does Rilke use for a woman's womb in The Seven Phallic Poems?

10. In the fourth and fifth of The Seven Phallic Poems, what imagery does the poet use for climax?

(see the answer keys)

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