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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Rilke writes in an untitled poem, "Who keeps innerly _____, touches the roots of speech."
(a) Silent.
(b) Stoic.
(c) Loved.
(d) Remembered.

2. What literary term applies to the following: "exhaust yourself like a spring"?
(a) Metaphor.
(b) Alliteration.
(c) Simile.
(d) Irony.

3. What does the poet say in his untitled poem to do with that which, "offers itself to us with starlight"?
(a) Take it seriously.
(b) Hide from it.
(c) Let it be free.
(d) Cry with it.

4. What is the title of the poem which begins, "From indescribable transformation flash / such creations--: Feel! and trust!"?
(a) "Gong."
(b) "Music."
(c) "Magic."
(d) "Greek Love-Talk."

5. Who does the commentator compare Rilke's relationship toward sex to in the Introduction?
(a) Fitzgerald.
(b) Hemingway.
(c) Norman Mailer.
(d) Robert Frost.

6. What does Rilke write in his first letter, imploring the reader to try to love?
(a) The answers.
(b) The truth.
(c) The questions themselves.
(d) Dignity.

7. In introducing Rilke's love poetry, the commentator notes that the poet's sexual and sensual undertones are mostly overlooked because of the striking impact of what?
(a) His flowery language.
(b) His spirituality.
(c) His uncommon rhythms.
(d) His surreal approach.

8. In an untitled poem from "Rilke's Poems on Other Difficulties," Rilke writes, "Great star of love's priestesses, which _____ kindles from its own right."
(a) Beauty.
(b) Heartbreak.
(c) Feeling.
(d) Misery.

9. Rilke writes in one letter, "Almost everything ______ is difficult, and everything is _______."
(a) Love.
(b) Sensual.
(c) Serious.
(d) Sexual.

10. Of what fruit does Rilke write of in "The Poet Praises"?
(a) Banana.
(b) Strawberry.
(c) Grapefruit.
(d) Orange.

11. In what amount of time did Rilke write over 1,600 lines of poetry plus a major essay during "the great giving"?
(a) Three months.
(b) Six months.
(c) Three weeks.
(d) Six weeks.

12. What does the translator comment in the Prologue that his translations of Rilke are?
(a) Inadequate.
(b) Eloquent.
(c) Exact.
(d) Beautiful.

13. The poem "Gong" makes use of what literary technique?
(a) Irony.
(b) Segmentation.
(c) Onomatapeia.
(d) Absurdism.

14. Rilke writes in one letter, "At bottom ______ can help anyone else in life."
(a) Women.
(b) Everyone.
(c) No one.
(d) Men.

15. In the second of "The Seven Phallic Poems," who does the poet claim is "drawing my seed up into an abrupt tree"?
(a) A garden.
(b) Love.
(c) A maiden.
(d) Summer.

Short Answer Questions

1. What does Rilke comment in the excerpt from the Introduction that Eros "cannot be"?

2. According to Rilke, there is "scarcely anything more difficult" than what?

3. In the seventh of "The Seven Phallic Poems," what does the poet write that his "semen climbs gladly like"?

4. In one untitled poem of "Rilke's Poems on Other Difficulties," Rilke writes, "Play the ____, the single ones, quickly and you..."

5. Rilke writes in "The Seven Phallic Poems," "We close ______ by means of our gazes."

(see the answer keys)

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