Adam’s Curse Quizzes

Adam's Curse Quiz

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

Aggressive

Regretful

Gleeful

Aloof
2 What does "thereupon" mean?

On top of

Supposedly

Therefore

Right after
3 What is the poem's central allusion?

The parables of Jesus

Paradise Lost

The Book of Genesis

Irish folklore
4 How is the addressee's friend characterized?

As clever and critical

As beautiful and kind

As sluggish and weary

As fiery and opinionated
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 twenty couplets

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
7 The poem's addressee is probably based on whom?

Augusta Gregory

W.B. Yeats

Georgiana Hyde-Lees

Maud Gonne
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 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 love the addressee in a lofty, effortful way

To become a banker or schoolteacher

To be recognized as a hardworking poet and lover

To return to prelapsarian paradise
12 In which poetry collection did this first appear?

The Wanderings of Oisin

The Winding Stair

In the Seven Woods

The Tower
13 What does the word "pauper" mean?

A poor person

A person who works in a kitchen

A very old person

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

A member of the clergy

An artist

A lazy person

A sick person
15 When was this poem published?

1921

1914

1900

1903
16 When does the work take place?

Early spring

A summer evening

Christmas afternoon

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

Intoxicated

Elevated

Wealthy

Physically far from the ground
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 understanding nature

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

Drops of water from a fountain

Coins in a pocket

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

The friend

The speaker

The addressee

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 expresses skepticism about biblical stories

It switches speakers several times

It is a sonnet
24 Which of the following is not described as a casualty or victim of Adam's curse?

Poetry

Love

Childhood

Physical beauty
25 What does the moon symbolize?

The speaker's cynicism about love

The light and redemption found in dark times

The eternal beauty of nature

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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