September 1913 Quizzes

September 1913 Quiz

1 Who is the "O'Leary" mentioned in the poem?
The Irish separatist John O'Leary

The eighteenth-century general William O'Leary

The painter Joseph O'Leary

The mythical Irish warrior O'Leary
2 How does the speaker conceive of the relationship between Irish people today and past Irish heroes?
Ireland's modern middle class has betrayed the heroes of the past

Modern Ireland has no heroes, because their ancestors all left the country

Modern Ireland would distress its historical heroes, but this is a positive thing

Ireland today carries the legacy of past heroes, even those whose names are lost to history
3 Yeats was personally acquainted with which of the people mentioned in this poem?
Fitzgerald

Emmet

Tone

O'Leary
4 Which of the following describes the poem's tone?
Jocular

Bitter

Businesslike

Dreamy
5 What is this poem's rhyme scheme?
AABBCCDD

ABBACDDC

ABCDEF

ABBCDCD
6 What type of stanzas make up this poem?
Quatrains

Sestets

Quintains

Octaves
7 What does the word "weigh" mean in the context of this poem?
Consider

Offer input

Measure

Carry
8 What is closest to a definition of the word "delirium" as used in the poem?
illness

stupidity

ecstasy

unconsciousness
9 Who were the "wild geese"?
The working classes of Ireland's rural counties

Irish soldiers fighting in foreign armies

Orphaned children growing up in Dublin

Yeats's generation of Irish artists and writers
10 How does Yeats evoke the disjunction between past and present Irish people?
By imagining them having a conversation

By imagining how a single city has changed over the centuries

By describing their respective homes and clothes

By picturing various figures of Irish history touring modern Dublin
11 Which sound produces assonance in the phrase "Was it for this"?
The short I sound

There is no assonance in this phrase

The O sound

The S sound
12 What claim is made in the poem's refrain?
That there is no need for Ireland to be independent

That O'Leary is dead but his legacy lives on

That Romantic Ireland is dead

That poets, not soldiers, will save Ireland
13 When did Robert Emmet die?
In 1939, shortly before Yeats's own death

In 1913, during a dispute over the Dublin lock-out

In 1798, during a shootout with British forces

In 1803, when he was executed for planning a rebellion
14 The phrase "maddened every mother’s son" contains which of the following?
End rhyme

Synecdoche

Alliteration

Personification
15 Which 1913 event does the poem's title refer to?
The Spanish Flu epidemic

Bloody Sunday

The Dublin Lock-Out

The Easter Rising
16 Which of the following lines contains the clearest instance of verbal irony?
"little time had they to pray"

"men were born to pray and save"

"They weighed so lightly what they gave"

"Romantic Ireland’s dead and gone"
17 In which of the poem's stanzas is the refrain somewhat altered?
The sixth

The fourth

The first

The third
18 Who is the implied addressee of the poem?
O'Leary

Irish soldiers

The speaker's child

Ireland's middle-class population in the twentieth century
19 The phrase "some woman's yellow hair" is an instance of what?
Synecdoche

Situational irony

Simile

Alliteration
20 What do Ireland's middle classes focus on, according to the speaker?
Prayer and money

Food and wine

Education and travel

Luxurious material goods
21 Who is the poem's protagonist?
The speaker

Robert Emmet

Ireland's children

Fighters on behalf of Irish nationalism and independence
22 The phrase "They have gone about the world like wind" is an instance of what device?
Verbal Irony

Simile

Assonance

Metaphor
23 What is this poem's meter?
Anapestic trimeter

Iambic tetrameter

Iambic pentameter

Trochaic hexameter
24 Who was Edward Fitzgerald?
A leader of the group known as the United Irishmen

A fictional character from a James Joyce novel

An Irish spy in the nineteenth century

A friend of the poet's who died shortly before this work was written
25 The claim that "Romantic Ireland's dead" is an instance of what?
Simile

Synecdoche

Metonymy

Metaphor

September 1913 Questions and Answers

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Study Guide for September 1913

September 1913 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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