Byzantium Quizzes

Byzantium Quiz Vocabulary, Form, and Literary Devices

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

Center

Muck

Ocean
2 Who is Hades?
An Egyptian pharaoh

A famous patriarch of the early Orthodox Church

The emperor who founded the city of Constantinople

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

Sestets

Tercets

Quintains
4 What does the word "begot" most closely mean?
Tricked

Understood

Created

Possessed
5 What is the poem's form?
Sonnet

It does not follow a traditional form

Villanelle

Sestina
6 Which type of meter are most of the poem's lines written in?
Iambic pentameter

Iambic tetrameter

Trochaic trimeter

Iambic trimeter
7 What does the word "superhuman" most closely mean?
Animal-like and instinctive

Very large

Extremely human-like

Possessed of unusual or magical powers
8 What is the meter of the line "breathless mouths may summon"?
Iambic trimeter

Dactylic pentameter

Trochaic trimeter

Iambic pentameter
9 What does the word "bobbin" most closely mean?
A despotic ruler, especially in the ancient world

A multi-story Ottoman mansion

An implement used in sewing and weaving

A type of ballroom dance popular in the early 20th century
10 What does the word "shade" most closely mean?
Curtain

Tent

Ghost

Night
11 What does the word "singe" most closely mean?
Clean

Burn

Opera

Monkey
12 Which objects are personified in this work?
The bobbin

The moon

The marbles

The domes
13 What does the word "smithies" most closely mean?
Members of the royal court

Narrow alleyways

Metal forgeries

Rivers to the underworld
14 What is the rhyme scheme of each stanza?
AABBCDDC

ABABCBCDC

ABABCDCD

ABBACDDC
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?
Metonymy

Simile

Personification

Metaphor
17 What does the word "flit" most closely mean?
Blink

Equivocate

Hide

Dart
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 type of Byzantine church

A wormlike creature from Greek myth

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?
"moonlit dome disdains"

"Night resonance recedes"

"cannot singe a sleeve"

"mire or blood"
21 Which best describes the poem's conflict?
It is a conflict between spiritual and physical existence

It is a conflict between the speaker and the shade

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
22 To which of the following does Yeats frequent allude in this work?
Easter Orthodox theology

Celtic legend

Greek myth

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

singe

trance

none of these are onomatopoetic
24 The phrase "mire and blood" is a synecdoche representing what?
War

The physical world

Family

The spiritual world
25 How many stanzas does the poem contain?
2

3

5

4

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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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