Byzantium Quizzes

Byzantium Quiz Vocabulary, Form, and Literary Devices

1 What does the word "mire" most closely mean?

Muck

Ocean

Center

Tower
2 Who is Hades?

An Egyptian pharaoh

The emperor who founded the city of Constantinople

A famous patriarch of the early Orthodox Church

The Greek god of the underworld
3 What type of stanzas make up the poem?

Sestets

Quintains

Octaves

Tercets
4 What does the word "begot" most closely mean?

Tricked

Created

Possessed

Understood
5 What is the poem's form?

Sonnet

Villanelle

Sestina

It does not follow a traditional form
6 Which type of meter are most of the poem's lines written in?

Iambic tetrameter

Trochaic trimeter

Iambic trimeter

Iambic pentameter
7 What does the word "superhuman" most closely mean?

Animal-like and instinctive

Possessed of unusual or magical powers

Very large

Extremely human-like
8 What is the meter of the line "breathless mouths may summon"?

Iambic pentameter

Trochaic trimeter

Iambic trimeter

Dactylic pentameter
9 What does the word "bobbin" most closely mean?

An implement used in sewing and weaving

A type of ballroom dance popular in the early 20th century

A despotic ruler, especially in the ancient world

A multi-story Ottoman mansion
10 What does the word "shade" most closely mean?

Curtain

Tent

Night

Ghost
11 What does the word "singe" most closely mean?

Burn

Clean

Opera

Monkey
12 Which objects are personified in this work?

The domes

The moon

The marbles

The bobbin
13 What does the word "smithies" most closely mean?

Narrow alleyways

Metal forgeries

Rivers to the underworld

Members of the royal court
14 What is the rhyme scheme of each stanza?

ABABCBCDC

ABABCDCD

ABBACDDC

AABBCDDC
15 What is the meter of the line "Fresh images beget"?

Trochaic tetrameter

Spondaic pentameter

Iambic trimeter

Iambic pentameter
16 The line "Can like the cocks of Hades crow" contains an instance of what?

Simile

Personification

Metaphor

Metonymy
17 What does the word "flit" most closely mean?

Equivocate

Blink

Dart

Hide
18 What is the meter of the line "Can like the cocks of Hades crow"?

Trochaic trimeter

Dactylic pentameter

Trochaic tetrameter

Iambic tetrameter
19 What does the word "gong" most closely mean?

A wormlike creature from Greek myth

A type of Byzantine church

A meter that Yeats made up and used in his poetry

An instrument that can be struck to make a ringing sound
20 Which of the following phrases is not alliterative?

"Night resonance recedes"

"mire or blood"

"moonlit dome disdains"

"cannot singe a sleeve"
21 Which best describes the poem's conflict?

It is a conflict between the Emperor and his soldiery on the one hand, and everyday citizens on the other

It is a conflict between the Byzantine and Persian empires

It is a conflict between spiritual and physical existence

It is a conflict between the speaker and the shade
22 To which of the following does Yeats frequent allude in this work?

Greek myth

Easter Orthodox theology

Celtic legend

Ottoman history
23 Which of the following words is an instance of onomatopoeia?

none of these are onomatopoetic

singe

trance

bough
24 The phrase "mire and blood" is a synecdoche representing what?

War

The spiritual world

Family

The physical world
25 How many stanzas does the poem contain?

5

2

4

3

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Byzantium 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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