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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What is the name of the artists' colony in Russian where Rilke was further influenced in his writing?

2. In the second of "The Seven Phallic Poems," who does the poet claim is "drawing my seed up into an abrupt tree"?

3. Rilke is regarded in his letters and his writing to be distinctly ahead of his time in what respect?

4. The poem "Gong" makes use of what literary technique?

5. Rilke writes in his letters on love, "Once we were ______ in every part, now we are that in one part only."

Short Essay Questions

1. What sexual elements are undertaken in The Seven Phallic Poems?

2. What are the subjects discussed in the "Woman's Lament" poems?

3. What does Rilke write of using the metaphor of water, song, and play in his untitled poems?

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

5. What references to Venus does Rilke make in the untitled poems of "Poems of Other Difficulties"?

6. What is the poet writing about in "The Poet Praises"?

7. Discuss the subjects of "Greek Love Talk" and "The Lovers." What imagery is used?

8. In the untitled poems following "The Lovers," what imagery does the poet use?

9. What does the commentator say regarding Rilke's feminism in the Prologue?

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Discuss Rilke in terms of Expressionism and Existentialism. How does Rilke fit into these movements, when and where did they arise, and what in his works reflect these styles?

Essay Topic 2

Discuss John L. Mood's interpretation of Rilke as a writer. How did Mood first encounter Rilke? What drew him to the poet's writing? In what era did Mood become fascinated with Rilke and why?

Essay Topic 3

Discuss the poems, "Greek Love-Talk" and "The Lovers," describing an analysis of their structure, the placement of punctuation and capitalization, and assonance or alliteration.

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