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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 does Rilke advise the young poet to buy in letter three?

2. In the first letter, in what manner does Rilke suggest the young poet can tend to his personal growth?

3. What is Rilke's primary criticism of the young poet's writing in the first letter?

4. In letter three, what does Rilke claim to be the most important element of becoming an artist?

5. Where does Rilke say humans should look for lessons on how to approach sex and pleasure?

Short Essay Questions

1. At the end of letter four, Rilke mentions the young poet's new profession. What is this profession?

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

3. 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?

4. What does Rilke imply about the nature of good art when he tells the young poet that if poetry is inspired by the young poet's soul-searching, he does not need to ask anyone else if the poetry is good?

5. What are Rilke's views on aesthetic criticism?

6. What do letters two and three suggest about the young poet's interest in Rilke's advice?

7. What does Rilke mean when, in the fourth letter, he tells the young poet to "live" his unanswered questions?

8. Rilke tells the young poet in the first letter that the only way for the poet to improve his writing is to "go into yourself". What does this mean?

9. Rilke says that artists remains unaware of their best qualities. Why is this?

10. What does Rilke mean when, in letter four, he says that physical pleasure is not bad, but that physical pleasure is often "misuse[d] and squander[ed]"?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Explain and analyze Rilke's understanding of God and how that view of God is atypical for the time in which Rilke lived.

Essay Topic 2

Compare and contrast the advice Rilke presents to the young poet and the way Rilke takes his own advice based on research into Rilke's life.

Essay Topic 3

Explain Rilke's ideas about the interrelationship of sex and art. How are sex and art similar? What should the role of sexuality be in the life of the artist?

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