Byzantium Quizzes

Byzantium Quiz Vocabulary, Form, and Literary Devices

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

Tower

Ocean

Muck

Center
2 Who is Hades?

The Greek god of the underworld

An Egyptian pharaoh

A famous patriarch of the early Orthodox Church

The emperor who founded the city of Constantinople
3 What type of stanzas make up the poem?

Sestets

Octaves

Quintains

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

Tricked

Understood

Created

Possessed
5 What is the poem's form?

Sestina

Villanelle

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?

Extremely human-like

Very large

Animal-like and instinctive

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

Dactylic pentameter

Iambic trimeter

Trochaic trimeter

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

An implement used in sewing and weaving

A despotic ruler, especially in the ancient world

A multi-story Ottoman mansion

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

Tent

Curtain

Night

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

Monkey

Burn

Opera

Clean
12 Which objects are personified in this work?

The domes

The moon

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?

ABABCBCDC

AABBCDDC

ABABCDCD

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

Spondaic pentameter

Trochaic tetrameter

Iambic trimeter

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

Metonymy

Metaphor

Simile

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

Hide

Equivocate

Blink

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

Dactylic pentameter

Trochaic trimeter

Trochaic tetrameter

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

A type of Byzantine church

A wormlike creature from Greek myth

An instrument that can be struck to make a ringing sound

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

"Night resonance recedes"

"mire or blood"

"cannot singe a sleeve"

"moonlit dome disdains"
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 speaker and the shade

It is a conflict between spiritual and physical existence

It is a conflict between the Byzantine and Persian empires
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

trance

bough

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

The spiritual world

War

The physical world

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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