Adam’s Curse Quizzes

Adam's Curse Quiz

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

Aggressive

Aloof

Gleeful
2 What does "thereupon" mean?
Right after

Therefore

On top of

Supposedly
3 What is the poem's central allusion?
The Book of Genesis

The parables of Jesus

Irish folklore

Paradise Lost
4 How is the addressee's friend characterized?
As sluggish and weary

As beautiful and kind

As clever and critical

As fiery and opinionated
5 What does the word "precedents" mean?
Underlying principles

Prior examples

People in charge of institutions

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 two fourteen-line sonnets in a row

It consists of a single forty-line stanza

It consists of twenty couplets
7 The poem's addressee is probably based on whom?
Augusta Gregory

Georgiana Hyde-Lees

Maud Gonne

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

It does not follow a consistent rhyme scheme

AABBCCDD

ABABCDCD
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

Iambic hexameter

Iambic pentameter

Trochaic pentameter
11 Which of the following does the speaker want?
To be recognized as a hardworking poet and lover

To return to prelapsarian paradise

To become a banker or schoolteacher

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

In the Seven Woods

The Winding Stair

The Tower
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?
An artist

A lazy person

A sick person

A member of the clergy
15 When was this poem published?
1903

1900

1914

1921
16 When does the work take place?
Christmas afternoon

A summer evening

The middle of the night

Early spring
17 What does the word "high," as used in this poem, mean?
Wealthy

Intoxicated

Elevated

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

The art of writing poetry

The art of following norms of feminine beauty

The art of understanding nature
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?
The embers of a fire

A dream that has been forgotten

Drops of water from a fountain

Coins in a pocket
21 Which character does not speak out loud in this poem?
The speaker

The addressee

The friend

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

Farming

Sewing

Childbearing
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

Physical beauty

Childhood

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

The speaker's cynicism about love

The omnipresence of the divine

The light and redemption found in dark times

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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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