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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. 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 uncommon rhythms.
(b) His spirituality.
(c) His surreal approach.
(d) His flowery language.

2. According to Rilke, there is "scarcely anything more difficult" than what?
(a) To leave one's love.
(b) To stand alone.
(c) To birth a child.
(d) To love one another.

3. The commentator regards that Rilke's "justly famed deep spirituality" is rooted essentially in what?
(a) Nature.
(b) Sex.
(c) Heaven.
(d) God.

4. In the introduction to "Rilke's Poems on Love," the commentator states that Rilke's imagery is all what?
(a) Unnatural.
(b) Earthly.
(c) Surreal.
(d) Heavenly.

5. What term describes the following example from "The Seven Phallic Poems"? "Daring landscape, such as an inner-seer/beholds in a crystal ball."
(a) Contrast.
(b) Simile.
(c) Irony.
(d) Prose.

Short Answer Questions

1. Writing of one of his principle motifs, the poet writes, "Transform stamen on stamen, / fill your interior _____."

2. Rilke is regarded in his letters and his writing to be distinctly ahead of his time in what respect?

3. What book of Simone de Beauvoir's does the commentator say led him to "militant feminism" in the Introduction to "Rilke's Letters on Love"?

4. In one of the untitled love poems, Rilke writes, "What fields are fragrant as your ______?"

5. What does Rilke accuse of vilifying sensuality and love?

Short Essay Questions

1. Discuss the subjects and imagery of "The Poems Praise."

2. How does Rilke regard the difficulty of sex in his opening letters?

3. What happens when one gives oneself completely over to love, according to the poet?

4. What reference does Rilke use to the god Hermes in The Seven Phallic Poems?

5. What is the subject and imagery in the poem "Magic"?

6. In the fourth and fifth of The Seven Phallic Poems, what imagery does the poet use for climax?

7. What does Rilke write of in his first poem of "Poems of Other Difficulties"?

8. In the untitled poems of "Rilke's Poems of Other Difficulties," how does Rilke write of the gods?

9. What does Rilke write of "silence" in his untitled poems?

10. What does Rilke say of questions and answers in his first essay?

(see the answer keys)

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