Adam’s Curse Quizzes

Adam's Curse Quiz

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

Aloof

Gleeful

Aggressive
2 What does "thereupon" mean?
Supposedly

On top of

Right after

Therefore
3 What is the poem's central allusion?
Paradise Lost

The Book of Genesis

The parables of Jesus

Irish folklore
4 How is the addressee's friend characterized?
As sluggish and weary

As clever and critical

As beautiful and kind

As fiery and opinionated
5 What does the word "precedents" mean?
Prior examples

Comforting narratives

People in charge of institutions

Underlying principles
6 What is the poem's stanzaic arrangement?
It consists of twenty couplets

It consists of a single forty-line stanza

It consists of two fourteen-line sonnets in a row

It consists of a longer, 27-line stanza, a sestet, and a quatrain
7 The poem's addressee is probably based on whom?
Georgiana Hyde-Lees

Augusta Gregory

Maud Gonne

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

It does not follow a consistent rhyme scheme

ABABCDCD

AABBCCDD
9 Which of the following appears to be true of the speaker?
The speaker is a mother

The speaker is a poet

The speaker is a soldier

The speaker is a banker
10 What is the poem's meter?
Iambic pentameter

Dactylic trimeter

Trochaic pentameter

Iambic hexameter
11 Which of the following does the speaker want?
To love the addressee in a lofty, effortful way

To return to prelapsarian paradise

To become a banker or schoolteacher

To be recognized as a hardworking poet and lover
12 In which poetry collection did this first appear?
The Winding Stair

The Wanderings of Oisin

In the Seven Woods

The Tower
13 What does the word "pauper" mean?
A poor person

A very old person

A poet

A person who works in a kitchen
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?
1921

1903

1914

1900
16 When does the work take place?
Christmas afternoon

Early spring

A summer evening

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

Physically far from the ground

Intoxicated

Elevated
18 Which of the following, according to the poem, is not taught in schools?
The art of following norms of feminine beauty

The art of writing poetry

The art of reading the Bible

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

Understatement

Synecdoche

Metonymy
20 What does Yeats compare the fading daylight to?
Drops of water from a fountain

A dream that has been forgotten

Coins in a pocket

The embers of a fire
21 Which character does not speak out loud in this poem?
The friend

The addressee

The speaker

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

Hunting

Farming

Childbearing
23 Which of the following is true of the poem?
It is written in the second person

It is a sonnet

It expresses skepticism about biblical stories

It switches speakers several times
24 Which of the following is not described as a casualty or victim of Adam's curse?
Poetry

Love

Physical beauty

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

The omnipresence of the divine

The light and redemption found in dark times

The speaker's cynicism about love

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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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