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This quiz consists of 5 multiple choice and 5 short answer questions through Book 1, The Selected Poetry of Rainer Maria Rilke : Chapter 8, Sonnets to Orpheus.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Which of the following is a line from the poem "To Holderlin"?
(a) We are allowed to be together for but a minute
(b) We are not permitted to linger.
(c) We are not permitted to be intimate.
(d) We must endure trial and tribulation.

2. In "The Bird Feeders," the poet emphasizes the value of __________.
(a) Women.
(b) Bird feeders.
(c) Schools.
(d) Children.

3. What is the new element introduced in "Requiem for a Friend"?
(a) Sentences.
(b) Paragraph indentations.
(c) Capital letters.
(d) Figurative language.

4. What does the swan symbolize?
(a) Anger.
(b) Angels.
(c) Family.
(d) Fidelity.

5. In the poem "Archaic Torso of Apollo," the poet is most similar to __________.
(a) A museum visitor.
(b) A lover.
(c) A mother.
(d) A zookeeper.

Short Answer Questions

1. In Rilke's poem, what type of activity is feeding birds?

2. According to Rilke, Orpheus continues to live on in ___________.

3. In what year was Book 1, Chapter 5 written?

4. In the poem in which the narrator is lying in bed, how many flights above ground is he or she?

5. What is the tone of the first poem in "Sonnets to Orpheus"?

(see the answer key)

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