Personal Helicon Quizzes

Personal Helicon Quiz

1 What is the Helicon primarily associated with?

Artistic inspiration

Romantic love

Moral redemption

Spiritual healing
2 What is the poem's major conflict?

The speaker's desire to explore, counter to social expectation

The tension between modernity and local tradition

The speaker's inability to decide whether to live a rural or a cosmopolitan life

The speaker's parents' hopes for him versus his friends' pressures
3 What does the phrase "the trapped sky" most likely refer to?

The appearance of a cloudy sky before a storm

The sky through a stained-glass window

The reflection of the sky

The adult speaker's narrow memory of childhood landscapes
4 What is the focus of the speaker's childhood exploration?

Trees

Ponds

Wells

Caves
5 What does the speaker like about echoes?

They help him hear and understand himself anew

They make him feel that he is not alone, even in remote places

They feel like confirmation of God or other spiritual beings

They cause nearby animals to respond
6 The speaker implies that he has changed his behavior as an adult for which reason?

He has become physically weak, though he is mentally sharp

He must care for his family and cannot take risks

He realizes that his explorations were insensitive to his neighbors

He does not want to be thought vain or undignified
7 The phrase "the dark drop" is an example of which of the following?

Understatement

Personification

Alliteration

Simile
8 How many stanzas are in the poem?

4

2

3

5
9 What is the poem's rhyme scheme?

ABAB

ABC CBA

ABABAB

ABCBCBA
10 To which mythological figure does the poem allude?

Hercules

Narcissus

Odysseus

Persephone
11 What type of stanzas comprise this poem?

4

5

6

3
12 Which word best describes the young speaker?

Curious

Listless

Industrious

Kind
13 What is meant by the word "scaresome"?

Scarce

Haunting

Frightening

Jumpy
14 How does the speaker reconnect to his childhood passions as an adult?

Through documenting the sites he once explored

Through family stories and folktales

Through visiting his old home

Through writing poetry
15 Which sound creates assonance in the phrase "pumps with buckets and windlasses"?

B's

P's

U's

S's
16 Which line contains alliterative R sounds?

"To stare, big-eyed Narcissus, into some spring"

"I savoured the rich crash"

"I loved the dark drop, the trapped sky"

"a rat slapped across my reflection."
17 Which of the following lines contains hyperbole?

"A shallow one under a dry stone ditch"

"I savoured the rich crash..."

"As a child, they could not keep me from wells"

"...a rat slapped across my reflection."
18 Which of the following elements of wells assume the most significance in this poem?

Dirtiness and murkiness

Echoes and reflections

Depth and darkness

Fluidity and movement
19 Which of the following is true of Ireland's holy wells?

They are largely concentrated in the Dublin area

They are not true wells, but rather manmade pools

They are usually surrounded by religious buildings

They are often associated with a patron saint
20 What is the "white face" described in stanza 3?

An unidentified wild animal

The speaker's deceased ancestors

The speaker's reflection

The spirit of the local holy well
21 Which of the following words is an example of onomatopoeia?

scaresome

Ditch

Dank

Crash
22 For which of the following purposes do people often use holy wells?

Cleaning spiritually unclean objects

Healing the sick

Watering crops

Divining the future
23 Which element of poetry does the speaker highlight in the poem's final lines?

Enjambment

Meter

Metaphor

Rhyme
24 Which does NOT describe the poem's tone?

Nostalgic

Bitter

Contemplative

Playful
25 What does the word "fructify" mean?

To make something productive

To sanctify or devote to a saint

To rot or decay

To sweeten

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Personal Helicon study guide contains a biography of Seamus Heaney, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis.

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