Byzantium Quizzes

Byzantium Quiz Vocabulary, Form, and Literary Devices

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

Tower

Muck

Ocean

Center
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?

Tercets

Octaves

Sestets

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

Understood

Tricked

Possessed

Created
5 What is the poem's form?

It does not follow a traditional form

Villanelle

Sonnet

Sestina
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

Very large

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 multi-story Ottoman mansion

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

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

Night

Tent

Curtain

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

Opera

Monkey

Clean

Burn
12 Which objects are personified in this work?

The moon

The bobbin

The marbles

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

Rivers to the underworld

Metal forgeries

Narrow alleyways

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

ABBACDDC

ABABCBCDC

AABBCDDC

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

Iambic pentameter

Trochaic tetrameter

Spondaic pentameter

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

Personification

Simile

Metonymy

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

Hide

Dart

Blink

Equivocate
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?

An instrument that can be struck to make a ringing sound

A meter that Yeats made up and used in his poetry

A wormlike creature from Greek myth

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 spiritual and physical existence

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 the speaker and the shade
22 To which of the following does Yeats frequent allude in this work?

Easter Orthodox theology

Celtic legend

Ottoman history

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

singe

trance

none of these are onomatopoetic

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

War

The spiritual world

Family

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

5

2

3

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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