View a FREE sample

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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What is the poem about faces called?
(a) "Faceless."
(b) "Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge."
(c) "The Bird Feeders."
(d) "Faces."

2. In one paragraph in the poem about faces, what has a woman fallen into?
(a) A dark hole.
(b) A well.
(c) An ocean.
(d) Herself.

3. When Orpheus is called in one of the sonnets, who gathers to listen in silence?
(a) Every human in the world.
(b) Every European person.
(c) Animals.
(d) Children.

4. Which of the following is most unique to Rilke?
(a) Allusion.
(b) Voice.
(c) Format.
(d) Diction.

5. What does Rilke refer to at the end of sonnet II-8?
(a) The recent war.
(b) The hungry and poor people in the streets.
(c) The unreality of the situation.
(d) The hopes he has for children.

6. In "To Holderlin," which of the following is referenced in the first stanza?
(a) Love and how long it lasts.
(b) Speed and motion.
(c) Physics and chemistry.
(d) Space and stars.

7. How are the poems in Book 1, Chapter 5 written?
(a) In short story form.
(b) In song form.
(c) In poem form.
(d) In prose.

8. What does Rilke disregard in writing his elegies?
(a) Restraint.
(b) Expertise.
(c) Regard for syntax and sentence structure.
(d) Poetic license.

9. What does the poet become frustrated by in "Sonnets to Orpheus"?
(a) His conscience.
(b) HIs lack of love.
(c) The limits of being a human.
(d) His inability to be an animal.

10. How is "To Music" written?
(a) In brief phrases.
(b) In one-word lines.
(c) In short paragraphs.
(d) In long paragraphs.

11. What is similar about each elegy in Book 1, Chapter 7?
(a) Diction.
(b) Setting.
(c) Length.
(d) Subject.

12. In the second stanza of the first elegy in Book 1, Chapter 7, "A ____ rolled toward you."
(a) Wave.
(b) God.
(c) Wheel.
(d) Springtime.

13. 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 must endure trial and tribulation.
(c) We are not permitted to be intimate.
(d) We are not permitted to linger.

14. The "diaphonous girl" appears to be a part of __________.
(a) Rilke's father.
(b) Rilke's best friend who died.
(c) Rilke's lover.
(d) Rilke.

15. What is the name of the poem following "Ibsen"?
(a) "The Fear of a Saint."
(b) "The Temptations of a Saint."
(c) "The Fate of a Saint."
(d) "The Sacraments of a Saint."

Short Answer Questions

1. Who is the poem "Ariel" named after?

2. In the elegy, Rilke wonders if an angel will hear _______.

3. In the poem where the narrator is lying in bed, which item describes the narrator's day?

4. In the poem about faces, what do vast numbers of things appear to be?

5. According to Rilke, what do poems written in one's youth lack?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 446 words (approx. 2 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample