Byzantium Quizzes

Byzantium Quiz Vocabulary, Form, and Literary Devices

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

Muck

Tower

Center
2 Who is Hades?
An Egyptian pharaoh

The emperor who founded the city of Constantinople

The Greek god of the underworld

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

Sestets

Tercets

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

Understood

Tricked

Created
5 What is the poem's form?
Villanelle

It does not follow a traditional form

Sestina

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

Iambic trimeter

Iambic pentameter

Trochaic trimeter
7 What does the word "superhuman" most closely mean?
Extremely human-like

Animal-like and instinctive

Possessed of unusual or magical powers

Very large
8 What is the meter of the line "breathless mouths may summon"?
Trochaic trimeter

Iambic trimeter

Iambic pentameter

Dactylic pentameter
9 What does the word "bobbin" most closely mean?
A multi-story Ottoman mansion

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

An implement used in sewing and weaving

A despotic ruler, especially in the ancient world
10 What does the word "shade" most closely mean?
Curtain

Night

Tent

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

Opera

Burn

Clean
12 Which objects are personified in this work?
The marbles

The moon

The domes

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

Rivers to the underworld

Narrow alleyways

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

ABABCDCD

ABBACDDC

ABABCBCDC
15 What is the meter of the line "Fresh images beget"?
Trochaic tetrameter

Iambic pentameter

Iambic trimeter

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

Simile

Metaphor

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

Dart

Hide

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

Trochaic trimeter

Iambic tetrameter

Dactylic pentameter
19 What does the word "gong" most closely mean?
An instrument that can be struck to make a ringing sound

A wormlike creature from Greek myth

A type of Byzantine church

A meter that Yeats made up and used in his poetry
20 Which of the following phrases is not alliterative?
"cannot singe a sleeve"

"Night resonance recedes"

"moonlit dome disdains"

"mire or blood"
21 Which best describes the poem's conflict?
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

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

Easter Orthodox theology

Greek myth

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

none of these are onomatopoetic

singe

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

The spiritual world

War

Family
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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