Adam’s Curse Quizzes

Adam's Curse Quiz

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

Regretful

Aloof

Gleeful
2 What does "thereupon" mean?
Therefore

On top of

Right after

Supposedly
3 What is the poem's central allusion?
The parables of Jesus

Paradise Lost

Irish folklore

The Book of Genesis
4 How is the addressee's friend characterized?
As clever and critical

As fiery and opinionated

As sluggish and weary

As beautiful and kind
5 What does the word "precedents" mean?
People in charge of institutions

Prior examples

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?
Georgiana Hyde-Lees

Maud Gonne

Augusta Gregory

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

AABBCCDD

ABBACDDCEFFE

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

The speaker is a banker

The speaker is a mother

The speaker is a poet
10 What is the poem's meter?
Iambic hexameter

Trochaic pentameter

Iambic pentameter

Dactylic trimeter
11 Which of the following does the speaker want?
To become a banker or schoolteacher

To love the addressee in a lofty, effortful way

To return to prelapsarian paradise

To be recognized as a hardworking poet and lover
12 In which poetry collection did this first appear?
In the Seven Woods

The Winding Stair

The Wanderings of Oisin

The Tower
13 What does the word "pauper" mean?
A person who works in a kitchen

A poor person

A very old person

A poet
14 What does the word "idler" mean?
An artist

A sick person

A lazy person

A member of the clergy
15 When was this poem published?
1900

1903

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?
Physically far from the ground

Elevated

Wealthy

Intoxicated
18 Which of the following, according to the poem, is not taught in schools?
The art of understanding nature

The art of writing poetry

The art of following norms of feminine beauty

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

Synecdoche

Personification

Metonymy
20 What does Yeats compare the fading daylight to?
A dream that has been forgotten

Coins in a pocket

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

Childbearing

Farming

Hunting
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?
Love

Childhood

Physical beauty

Poetry
25 What does the moon symbolize?
The eternal beauty of nature

The light and redemption found in dark times

The speaker's cynicism about love

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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