September 1913 Quizzes

September 1913 Quiz

1 Who is the "O'Leary" mentioned in the poem?
The Irish separatist John O'Leary

The mythical Irish warrior O'Leary

The eighteenth-century general William O'Leary

The painter Joseph O'Leary
2 How does the speaker conceive of the relationship between Irish people today and past Irish heroes?
Modern Ireland would distress its historical heroes, but this is a positive thing

Modern Ireland has no heroes, because their ancestors all left the country

Ireland today carries the legacy of past heroes, even those whose names are lost to history

Ireland's modern middle class has betrayed the heroes of the past
3 Yeats was personally acquainted with which of the people mentioned in this poem?
O'Leary

Emmet

Tone

Fitzgerald
4 Which of the following describes the poem's tone?
Businesslike

Bitter

Dreamy

Jocular
5 What is this poem's rhyme scheme?
ABBCDCD

ABCDEF

AABBCCDD

ABBACDDC
6 What type of stanzas make up this poem?
Quatrains

Octaves

Quintains

Sestets
7 What does the word "weigh" mean in the context of this poem?
Consider

Measure

Carry

Offer input
8 What is closest to a definition of the word "delirium" as used in the poem?
ecstasy

illness

stupidity

unconsciousness
9 Who were the "wild geese"?
Irish soldiers fighting in foreign armies

Yeats's generation of Irish artists and writers

The working classes of Ireland's rural counties

Orphaned children growing up in Dublin
10 How does Yeats evoke the disjunction between past and present Irish people?
By picturing various figures of Irish history touring modern Dublin

By imagining them having a conversation

By describing their respective homes and clothes

By imagining how a single city has changed over the centuries
11 Which sound produces assonance in the phrase "Was it for this"?
The O sound

The short I sound

The S sound

There is no assonance in this phrase
12 What claim is made in the poem's refrain?
That there is no need for Ireland to be independent

That poets, not soldiers, will save Ireland

That Romantic Ireland is dead

That O'Leary is dead but his legacy lives on
13 When did Robert Emmet die?
In 1939, shortly before Yeats's own death

In 1798, during a shootout with British forces

In 1803, when he was executed for planning a rebellion

In 1913, during a dispute over the Dublin lock-out
14 The phrase "maddened every mother’s son" contains which of the following?
Synecdoche

Personification

End rhyme

Alliteration
15 Which 1913 event does the poem's title refer to?
The Dublin Lock-Out

Bloody Sunday

The Spanish Flu epidemic

The Easter Rising
16 Which of the following lines contains the clearest instance of verbal irony?
"Romantic Ireland’s dead and gone"

"men were born to pray and save"

"They weighed so lightly what they gave"

"little time had they to pray"
17 In which of the poem's stanzas is the refrain somewhat altered?
The first

The fourth

The third

The sixth
18 Who is the implied addressee of the poem?
The speaker's child

O'Leary

Irish soldiers

Ireland's middle-class population in the twentieth century
19 The phrase "some woman's yellow hair" is an instance of what?
Simile

Alliteration

Synecdoche

Situational irony
20 What do Ireland's middle classes focus on, according to the speaker?
Food and wine

Luxurious material goods

Prayer and money

Education and travel
21 Who is the poem's protagonist?
Robert Emmet

Fighters on behalf of Irish nationalism and independence

Ireland's children

The speaker
22 The phrase "They have gone about the world like wind" is an instance of what device?
Simile

Verbal Irony

Metaphor

Assonance
23 What is this poem's meter?
Iambic tetrameter

Trochaic hexameter

Anapestic trimeter

Iambic pentameter
24 Who was Edward Fitzgerald?
A friend of the poet's who died shortly before this work was written

A fictional character from a James Joyce novel

An Irish spy in the nineteenth century

A leader of the group known as the United Irishmen
25 The claim that "Romantic Ireland's dead" is an instance of what?
Simile

Metaphor

Metonymy

Synecdoche

September 1913 Questions and Answers

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Study Guide for September 1913

September 1913 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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