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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. What does Rilke say is bad about physical pleasure?
(a) Its ability to bring happiness.
(b) Humans' misuse and waste of it.
(c) Its ability to keep artists away from their work.
(d) Its temptation.

2. How old is the young poet when he begins corresponding with Rilke?
(a) 28.
(b) 12.
(c) 19.
(d) 25.

3. Where is the young poet who is the recipient of the letters studying when he begins to receive correspondence from Rilke?
(a) A military academy in Paris.
(b) A military academy in Germany.
(c) A military acdemy in Oslo.
(d) A military academy in Prague.

4. What does Rilke suggest that all humans share in, both women and men?
(a) Spirituality.
(b) Transcendence.
(c) Reverence.
(d) Motherhood.

5. In the first letter, what does Rilke cite as the most disruptive hindrance to the young poet's progress?
(a) Romantic entanglements.
(b) Looking for others to answer the poet's own personal questions.
(c) Non-artistic work.
(d) Drinking.

Short Answer Questions

1. In what year does Rilke write the fourth letter?

2. What does Rilke tell the young poet to rejoice in?

3. What is Rilke's salutation at the end of the first letter?

4. How does Rilke advise the young poet to view sex?

5. What does Rilke ask the young poet to do for him at the end of the first letter?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Rilke mean when he says in letter three that sex "is not sufficiently human, [but] is only male"?

2. What does Rilke mean when he tells the young poet in the first letter that the poet's work has "no individual style"?

3. What does Rilke mean when, in letter four, he says that the intellect "lags marveling behind" the consciousness?

4. What does Rilke imply about irony?

5. What does Rilke mean when, in letter four, he says that man "might be more reverent toward his fruitfulness, which is but one, whether it seems mental or physical..."?

6. What can be inferred about Rilke's health from letters two and three?

7. Rilke advises the young poet to be cautious about the way sex can change behavior. In what way does he suggest that sex changes people?

8. What can we infer from the fact that in the first letter, Rilke's closing salutation is with "with sympathy?"

9. What reason does Rilke give for advising the young poet against writing love poems?

10. In letter four, Rilke says that "even the best err in words when they are meant to mean most delicate and almost inexpressible things." What does this mean?

(see the answer keys)

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