Byzantium Quizzes

Byzantium Quiz Vocabulary, Form, and Literary Devices

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

Muck

Center

Ocean
2 Who is Hades?
The Greek god of the underworld

The emperor who founded the city of Constantinople

An Egyptian pharaoh

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

Octaves

Sestets

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

Understood

Tricked

Possessed
5 What is the poem's form?
Villanelle

Sestina

Sonnet

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

Trochaic trimeter

Iambic tetrameter

Iambic trimeter
7 What does the word "superhuman" most closely mean?
Very large

Extremely human-like

Possessed of unusual or magical powers

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

Iambic trimeter

Dactylic pentameter

Trochaic trimeter
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 multi-story Ottoman mansion

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

Night

Ghost

Curtain
11 What does the word "singe" most closely mean?
Opera

Burn

Monkey

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

The domes

The bobbin

The marbles
13 What does the word "smithies" most closely mean?
Rivers to the underworld

Members of the royal court

Narrow alleyways

Metal forgeries
14 What is the rhyme scheme of each stanza?
ABABCDCD

ABBACDDC

ABABCBCDC

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

Iambic trimeter

Iambic pentameter

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

Metaphor

Metonymy

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

Blink

Equivocate

Dart
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?
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

A type of Byzantine church
20 Which of the following phrases is not alliterative?
"moonlit dome disdains"

"mire or blood"

"cannot singe a sleeve"

"Night resonance recedes"
21 Which best describes the poem's conflict?
It is a conflict between the speaker and the shade

It is a conflict between spiritual and physical existence

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
22 To which of the following does Yeats frequent allude in this work?
Ottoman history

Celtic legend

Easter Orthodox theology

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

bough

trance

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

Family

War

The physical world
25 How many stanzas does the poem contain?
4

3

2

5

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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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