September 1913 Quizzes

September 1913 Quiz

1 Who is the "O'Leary" mentioned in the poem?

The painter Joseph O'Leary

The mythical Irish warrior O'Leary

The eighteenth-century general William O'Leary

The Irish separatist John O'Leary
2 How does the speaker conceive of the relationship between Irish people today and past Irish heroes?

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

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

Ireland's modern middle class has betrayed the heroes of the past

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?

Tone

Emmet

O'Leary

Fitzgerald
4 Which of the following describes the poem's tone?

Bitter

Jocular

Businesslike

Dreamy
5 What is this poem's rhyme scheme?

ABCDEF

AABBCCDD

ABBACDDC

ABBCDCD
6 What type of stanzas make up this poem?

Quatrains

Quintains

Sestets

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

Carry

Consider

Measure

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

stupidity

ecstasy

unconsciousness

illness
9 Who were the "wild geese"?

The working classes of Ireland's rural counties

Irish soldiers fighting in foreign armies

Yeats's generation of Irish artists and writers

Orphaned children growing up in Dublin
10 How does Yeats evoke the disjunction between past and present Irish people?

By picturing various figures of Irish history touring modern Dublin

By imagining them having a conversation

By imagining how a single city has changed over the centuries

By describing their respective homes and clothes
11 Which sound produces assonance in the phrase "Was it for this"?

There is no assonance in this phrase

The O sound

The S sound

The short I sound
12 What claim is made in the poem's refrain?

That Romantic Ireland is dead

That O'Leary is dead but his legacy lives on

That there is no need for Ireland to be independent

That poets, not soldiers, will save Ireland
13 When did Robert Emmet die?

In 1798, during a shootout with British forces

In 1939, shortly before Yeats's own death

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

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

Alliteration

End rhyme

Synecdoche

Personification
15 Which 1913 event does the poem's title refer to?

Bloody Sunday

The Dublin Lock-Out

The Spanish Flu epidemic

The Easter Rising
16 Which of the following lines contains the clearest instance of verbal irony?

"men were born to pray and save"

"They weighed so lightly what they gave"

"little time had they to pray"

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

The fourth

The sixth

The third

The first
18 Who is the implied addressee of the poem?

Irish soldiers

Ireland's middle-class population in the twentieth century

The speaker's child

O'Leary
19 The phrase "some woman's yellow hair" is an instance of what?

Synecdoche

Simile

Alliteration

Situational irony
20 What do Ireland's middle classes focus on, according to the speaker?

Education and travel

Food and wine

Luxurious material goods

Prayer and money
21 Who is the poem's protagonist?

Ireland's children

Fighters on behalf of Irish nationalism and independence

The speaker

Robert Emmet
22 The phrase "They have gone about the world like wind" is an instance of what device?

Verbal Irony

Assonance

Simile

Metaphor
23 What is this poem's meter?

Anapestic trimeter

Iambic tetrameter

Iambic pentameter

Trochaic hexameter
24 Who was Edward Fitzgerald?

A friend of the poet's who died shortly before this work was written

A leader of the group known as the United Irishmen

An Irish spy in the nineteenth century

A fictional character from a James Joyce novel
25 The claim that "Romantic Ireland's dead" is an instance of what?

Metonymy

Metaphor

Simile

Synecdoche

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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