Adam’s Curse Quizzes

Adam's Curse Quiz

1 Which of the following best describes the poem's tone?
Gleeful

Aggressive

Regretful

Aloof
2 What does "thereupon" mean?
Right after

On top of

Supposedly

Therefore
3 What is the poem's central allusion?
Paradise Lost

The parables of Jesus

The Book of Genesis

Irish folklore
4 How is the addressee's friend characterized?
As beautiful and kind

As sluggish and weary

As fiery and opinionated

As clever and critical
5 What does the word "precedents" mean?
Prior examples

People in charge of institutions

Underlying principles

Comforting narratives
6 What is the poem's stanzaic arrangement?
It consists of a longer, 27-line stanza, a sestet, and a quatrain

It consists of twenty couplets

It consists of two fourteen-line sonnets in a row

It consists of a single forty-line stanza
7 The poem's addressee is probably based on whom?
W.B. Yeats

Maud Gonne

Augusta Gregory

Georgiana Hyde-Lees
8 What is the poem's rhyme scheme?
ABABCDCD

ABBACDDCEFFE

AABBCCDD

It does not follow a consistent rhyme scheme
9 Which of the following appears to be true of the speaker?
The speaker is a banker

The speaker is a poet

The speaker is a soldier

The speaker is a mother
10 What is the poem's meter?
Dactylic trimeter

Trochaic pentameter

Iambic hexameter

Iambic pentameter
11 Which of the following does the speaker want?
To love the addressee in a lofty, effortful way

To be recognized as a hardworking poet and lover

To become a banker or schoolteacher

To return to prelapsarian paradise
12 In which poetry collection did this first appear?
The Wanderings of Oisin

The Winding Stair

The Tower

In the Seven Woods
13 What does the word "pauper" mean?
A very old person

A person who works in a kitchen

A poet

A poor person
14 What does the word "idler" mean?
A member of the clergy

A sick person

An artist

A lazy person
15 When was this poem published?
1921

1903

1900

1914
16 When does the work take place?
Early spring

Christmas afternoon

A summer evening

The middle of the night
17 What does the word "high," as used in this poem, mean?
Intoxicated

Elevated

Wealthy

Physically far from the ground
18 Which of the following, according to the poem, is not taught in schools?
The art of following norms of feminine beauty

The art of understanding nature

The art of writing poetry

The art of reading the Bible
19 The line "I had a thought for no one’s but your ears" contains which device?
Metonymy

Personification

Synecdoche

Understatement
20 What does Yeats compare the fading daylight to?
Coins in a pocket

A dream that has been forgotten

Drops of water from a fountain

The embers of a fire
21 Which character does not speak out loud in this poem?
The addressee

The friend

The speaker

All of the above—the characters sit in silent reflection
22 The speaker compares poetry to which of the following?
Sewing

Hunting

Childbearing

Farming
23 Which of the following is true of the poem?
It switches speakers several times

It is a sonnet

It is written in the second person

It expresses skepticism about biblical stories
24 Which of the following is not described as a casualty or victim of Adam's curse?
Physical beauty

Poetry

Love

Childhood
25 What does the moon symbolize?
The light and redemption found in dark times

The speaker's cynicism about love

The eternal beauty of nature

The omnipresence of the divine

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Study Guide for Adam’s Curse

Adam's Curse study guide contains a biography of William Butler Yeats, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis.

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