Adam’s Curse Quizzes

Adam's Curse Quiz

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

Regretful

Gleeful

Aggressive

Aloof
2 What does "thereupon" mean?

Supposedly

Right after

On top of

Therefore
3 What is the poem's central allusion?

Irish folklore

The Book of Genesis

Paradise Lost

The parables of Jesus
4 How is the addressee's friend characterized?

As sluggish and weary

As fiery and opinionated

As beautiful and kind

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

Prior examples

People in charge of institutions

Comforting narratives

Underlying principles
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?

Maud Gonne

Georgiana Hyde-Lees

Augusta Gregory

W.B. Yeats
8 What is the poem's rhyme scheme?

ABBACDDCEFFE

ABABCDCD

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 pentameter

Iambic hexameter
11 Which of the following does the speaker want?

To become a banker or schoolteacher

To return to prelapsarian paradise

To be recognized as a hardworking poet and lover

To love the addressee in a lofty, effortful way
12 In which poetry collection did this first appear?

The Winding Stair

The Wanderings of Oisin

The Tower

In the Seven Woods
13 What does the word "pauper" mean?

A person who works in a kitchen

A very old person

A poet

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

A member of the clergy

A lazy person

An artist

A sick person
15 When was this poem published?

1903

1900

1921

1914
16 When does the work take place?

A summer evening

Early spring

Christmas afternoon

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

Intoxicated

Elevated

Physically far from the ground

Wealthy
18 Which of the following, according to the poem, is not taught in schools?

The art of reading the Bible

The art of following norms of feminine beauty

The art of understanding nature

The art of writing poetry
19 The line "I had a thought for no one’s but your ears" contains which device?

Personification

Metonymy

Understatement

Synecdoche
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?

Childbearing

Sewing

Hunting

Farming
23 Which of the following is true of the poem?

It is written in the second person

It switches speakers several times

It is a sonnet

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

Love

Childhood

Physical beauty

Poetry
25 What does the moon symbolize?

The eternal beauty of nature

The speaker's cynicism about love

The light and redemption found in dark times

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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