September 1913 Quizzes

September 1913 Quiz

1 Who is the "O'Leary" mentioned in the poem?
The painter Joseph O'Leary

The eighteenth-century general William O'Leary

The mythical Irish warrior O'Leary

The Irish separatist John O'Leary
2 How does the speaker conceive of the relationship between Irish people today and past Irish heroes?
Ireland today carries the legacy of past heroes, even those whose names are lost to history

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'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?
Tone

O'Leary

Emmet

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

Businesslike

Bitter

Dreamy
5 What is this poem's rhyme scheme?
AABBCCDD

ABCDEF

ABBACDDC

ABBCDCD
6 What type of stanzas make up this poem?
Octaves

Quintains

Quatrains

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

Consider

Offer input

Carry
8 What is closest to a definition of the word "delirium" as used in the poem?
illness

unconsciousness

stupidity

ecstasy
9 Who were the "wild geese"?
Yeats's generation of Irish artists and writers

Orphaned children growing up in Dublin

Irish soldiers fighting in foreign armies

The working classes of Ireland's rural counties
10 How does Yeats evoke the disjunction between past and present Irish people?
By imagining them having a conversation

By describing their respective homes and clothes

By picturing various figures of Irish history touring modern Dublin

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

The O sound

The S sound

There is no assonance in this phrase
12 What claim is made in the poem's refrain?
That O'Leary is dead but his legacy lives on

That there is no need for Ireland to be independent

That poets, not soldiers, will save Ireland

That Romantic Ireland is dead
13 When did Robert Emmet die?
In 1913, during a dispute over the Dublin lock-out

In 1798, during a shootout with British forces

In 1803, when he was executed for planning a rebellion

In 1939, shortly before Yeats's own death
14 The phrase "maddened every mother’s son" contains which of the following?
Alliteration

Personification

Synecdoche

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

The Spanish Flu epidemic

The Easter Rising

Bloody Sunday
16 Which of the following lines contains the clearest instance of verbal irony?
"little time had they to pray"

"men were born to pray and save"

"They weighed so lightly what they gave"

"Romantic Ireland’s dead and gone"
17 In which of the poem's stanzas is the refrain somewhat altered?
The sixth

The fourth

The third

The first
18 Who is the implied addressee of the poem?
Irish soldiers

Ireland's middle-class population in the twentieth century

The speaker's child

O'Leary
19 The phrase "some woman's yellow hair" is an instance of what?
Synecdoche

Alliteration

Situational irony

Simile
20 What do Ireland's middle classes focus on, according to the speaker?
Luxurious material goods

Food and wine

Prayer and money

Education and travel
21 Who is the poem's protagonist?
Fighters on behalf of Irish nationalism and independence

Ireland's children

The speaker

Robert Emmet
22 The phrase "They have gone about the world like wind" is an instance of what device?
Metaphor

Assonance

Simile

Verbal Irony
23 What is this poem's meter?
Trochaic hexameter

Iambic tetrameter

Anapestic trimeter

Iambic pentameter
24 Who was Edward Fitzgerald?
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

A friend of the poet's who died shortly before this work was written
25 The claim that "Romantic Ireland's dead" is an instance of what?
Synecdoche

Metaphor

Simile

Metonymy

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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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