Byzantium Quizzes

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Byzantium Quiz Vocabulary, Form, and Literary Devices

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

Ocean

Tower

Center

Muck
2 Who is Hades?

The emperor who founded the city of Constantinople

An Egyptian pharaoh

The Greek god of the underworld

A famous patriarch of the early Orthodox Church
3 What type of stanzas make up the poem?

Tercets

Sestets

Octaves

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

Created

Understood

Possessed

Tricked
5 What is the poem's form?

Sestina

Sonnet

It does not follow a traditional form

Villanelle
6 Which type of meter are most of the poem's lines written in?

Iambic pentameter

Iambic trimeter

Iambic tetrameter

Trochaic trimeter
7 What does the word "superhuman" most closely mean?

Possessed of unusual or magical powers

Extremely human-like

Very large

Animal-like and instinctive
8 What is the meter of the line "breathless mouths may summon"?

Dactylic pentameter

Iambic trimeter

Iambic pentameter

Trochaic trimeter
9 What does the word "bobbin" most closely mean?

A multi-story Ottoman mansion

A despotic ruler, especially in the ancient world

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

Monkey

Burn

Opera
12 Which objects are personified in this work?

The domes

The marbles

The bobbin

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

Rivers to the underworld

Members of the royal court

Metal forgeries

Narrow alleyways
14 What is the rhyme scheme of each stanza?

ABBACDDC

ABABCDCD

ABABCBCDC

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

Iambic trimeter

Iambic pentameter

Spondaic pentameter

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

Metaphor

Metonymy

Personification

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

Blink

Hide

Dart

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

Dactylic pentameter

Iambic tetrameter

Trochaic trimeter

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

A meter that Yeats made up and used in his poetry

An instrument that can be struck to make a ringing sound

A type of Byzantine church

A wormlike creature from Greek myth
20 Which of the following phrases is not alliterative?

"cannot singe a sleeve"

"mire or blood"

"moonlit dome disdains"

"Night resonance recedes"
21 Which best describes the poem's conflict?

It is a conflict between the Byzantine and Persian empires

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 speaker and the shade

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

Ottoman history

Easter Orthodox theology

Celtic legend

Greek myth
23 Which of the following words is an instance of onomatopoeia?

none of these are onomatopoetic

trance

singe

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

The physical world

Family

War

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

3

4

5

2

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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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