View a FREE sample

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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What did the commentator originally call the selections of Rilke's letters which he copied and gave out?
(a) "Notes on Love."
(b) "The Love Letters."
(c) "Letters of Love."
(d) "Rilke on Love."

2. Mood notes in his introduction to Rilke's poetry that the poet was "in no way an _______, nor in his life."
(a) Artist.
(b) Aesthete.
(c) Amateur.
(d) Actor.

3. What does Rilke accuse of vilifying sensuality and love?
(a) Womankind.
(b) The government.
(c) Christianity.
(d) Mankind.

4. In "From the Cycle: Nights," Rilke personifies "Night" as what?
(a) A river.
(b) A bird.
(c) A lover.
(d) A doom.

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

6. What is the name of the artists' colony in Russian where Rilke was further influenced in his writing?
(a) Schnizwald.
(b) Avondale.
(c) Round Table.
(d) Worpswede.

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

8. In "Gravity," Rilke writes, "Yet from the _____ falls, / as from a stored up cloud, / abundant rain of force."
(a) Dreamer.
(b) Lover.
(c) Sleeper.
(d) Weeper.

9. 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) Misery.
(b) Beauty.
(c) Feeling.
(d) Heartbreak.

10. What does Rilke suggest that the young are apt to do in love?
(a) Give oneself away.
(b) Stand solitary.
(c) Not listen to each other.
(d) Marry for money.

11. In a very short untitled poem, Rilke writes, "The voices warned me so I _____."
(a) Wept.
(b) Desisted.
(c) Ran.
(d) Ceased.

12. From what collection is "The Poet Praises" taken?
(a) Sonnets to Orpheus.
(b) Duino Elegies.
(c) Cycle--Nights.
(d) Letters to a Young Poet.

13. What does Rilke write is a simplification of one's way of life?
(a) Marriage.
(b) Forgiveness.
(c) Sex.
(d) Love.

14. What is the only novel that Rilke wrote?
(a) The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge.
(b) Letters to a Young Poet.
(c) Lessons of a Forgotten Soul.
(d) The Grapes of Wrath.

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

Short Answer Questions

1. What literary term applies to the following: "exhaust yourself like a spring"?

2. Rilke writes in his letters on love, "Once we were ______ in every part, now we are that in one part only."

3. What sculptor had an influence on Rilke's writing?

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

5. The translator claims that the poems in "Rilke's Poems on Love" deserve to take their place alongside whose great love poems?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 424 words (approx. 2 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample