Byzantium Quizzes

Byzantium Quiz Vocabulary, Form, and Literary Devices

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

Center

Ocean

Muck
2 Who is Hades?
The emperor who founded the city of Constantinople

An Egyptian pharaoh

A famous patriarch of the early Orthodox Church

The Greek god of the underworld
3 What type of stanzas make up the poem?
Tercets

Octaves

Quintains

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

Understood

Possessed

Tricked
5 What is the poem's form?
Sonnet

It does not follow a traditional form

Villanelle

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

Iambic trimeter

Trochaic trimeter

Iambic tetrameter
7 What does the word "superhuman" most closely mean?
Animal-like and instinctive

Possessed of unusual or magical powers

Extremely human-like

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

Dactylic pentameter

Trochaic trimeter

Iambic pentameter
9 What does the word "bobbin" most closely mean?
A despotic ruler, especially in the ancient world

A multi-story Ottoman mansion

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?
Ghost

Night

Tent

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

Clean

Burn

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

The bobbin

The moon

The domes
13 What does the word "smithies" most closely mean?
Members of the royal court

Metal forgeries

Rivers to the underworld

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

ABBACDDC

AABBCDDC

ABABCBCDC
15 What is the meter of the line "Fresh images beget"?
Iambic trimeter

Spondaic pentameter

Trochaic tetrameter

Iambic pentameter
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

Equivocate

Blink
18 What is the meter of the line "Can like the cocks of Hades crow"?
Iambic tetrameter

Dactylic pentameter

Trochaic trimeter

Trochaic tetrameter
19 What does the word "gong" most closely mean?
A type of Byzantine church

An instrument that can be struck to make a ringing sound

A wormlike creature from Greek myth

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"

"mire or blood"

"moonlit dome disdains"
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 spiritual and physical existence

It is a conflict between the speaker and the shade
22 To which of the following does Yeats frequent allude in this work?
Greek myth

Ottoman history

Celtic legend

Easter Orthodox theology
23 Which of the following words is an instance of onomatopoeia?
trance

bough

none of these are onomatopoetic

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

The physical world

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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