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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. Of what does Rilke write is, "to have courage for the most strange, most singular, and the most inexplicable that we may encounter"?
(a) The single obstacle in love.
(b) The only courage that is demanded of us.
(c) The only feeling we must feel.
(d) The singular obstacle in life.

2. In what year did Rilke write his own epitaph?
(a) 1927.
(b) 1921.
(c) 1915.
(d) 1925.

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

4. What does Rilke suggest we do to the possible dangers at hand in life?
(a) Run from them.
(b) Conquer them.
(c) Try to love them.
(d) Arrest them.

5. The accompaniment to writing poetry as a subject to Rilke is what?
(a) Water.
(b) Living life.
(c) Dreaming.
(d) Love.

Short Answer Questions

1. In "The Dragon-Princess," Rilke writes that the feeling one might have placed in total isolation, is "an abandonment to something inexpressible would almost ______ him."

2. Who does the commentator conclude that Rilke's epitaph addresses?

3. Rilke writes, as the first lines of "Blood-Remembering," "Ah! but verses amount to so little when one writes them _____."

4. Who does Mood quote in the Epilogue with the line, "... tormentor and tormented pedant and dunce wooer and wooed speechless and reafflicted with speech in the dark mud nothing to emend there"?

5. What does Rilke refer to death as?

Short Essay Questions

1. What has Rilke accomplished in his epitaph, according to Mood?

2. What does Rilke speak of initially regarding solitude in "The Dragon-Princess"?

3. What does Rilke remark of childhood memories in "Blood-Remembering"?

4. What metaphor does Rilke use in describing solitude in "The Dragon-Princess"?

5. What word does Mood focus on regarding Rilke's writing of "The Dragon-Princess"?

6. What does Mood say of Orpheus in his interpretation of "The Difficulty of Dying"?

7. From what text is "Blood-Remembering" taken? What character is speaking?

8. What does Rilke remark of the memories of "love" in "Blood-Remembering"?

9. What is the poem discussed in "The Difficulty of Dying"?

10. In "Blood-Remembering," what does Rilke write about the young as writers?

(see the answer keys)

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