September 1913 Quizzes

September 1913 Quiz

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

The Irish separatist John O'Leary

The painter Joseph O'Leary

The eighteenth-century general William 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?

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

Ireland's modern middle class has betrayed the heroes of the past
3 Yeats was personally acquainted with which of the people mentioned in this poem?

Emmet

Tone

O'Leary

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

Businesslike

Bitter

Jocular

Dreamy
5 What is this poem's rhyme scheme?

ABBACDDC

ABBCDCD

AABBCCDD

ABCDEF
6 What type of stanzas make up this poem?

Sestets

Octaves

Quintains

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

Offer input

Consider

Measure

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

unconsciousness

ecstasy

illness

stupidity
9 Who were the "wild geese"?

Irish soldiers fighting in foreign armies

The working classes of Ireland's rural counties

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 picturing various figures of Irish history touring modern Dublin

By describing their respective homes and clothes

By imagining how a single city has changed over the centuries
11 Which sound produces assonance in the phrase "Was it for this"?

The S sound

The O sound

The short I sound

There is no assonance in this phrase
12 What claim is made in the poem's refrain?

That poets, not soldiers, will save Ireland

That O'Leary is dead but his legacy lives on

That Romantic Ireland is dead

That there is no need for Ireland to be independent
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 1803, when he was executed for planning a rebellion

In 1798, during a shootout with British forces
14 The phrase "maddened every mother’s son" contains which of the following?

Alliteration

Personification

End rhyme

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

The Spanish Flu epidemic

The Dublin Lock-Out

Bloody Sunday

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

"Romantic Ireland’s dead and gone"

"men were born to pray and save"

"little time had they to pray"

"They weighed so lightly what they gave"
17 In which of the poem's stanzas is the refrain somewhat altered?

The third

The fourth

The first

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

Ireland's middle-class population in the twentieth century

The speaker's child

O'Leary

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

Situational irony

Synecdoche

Simile

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

Education and travel

Prayer and money

Food and wine

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

Ireland's children

Robert Emmet

Fighters on behalf of Irish nationalism and independence

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

Metaphor

Verbal Irony

Assonance

Simile
23 What is this poem's meter?

Iambic tetrameter

Iambic pentameter

Trochaic hexameter

Anapestic trimeter
24 Who was Edward Fitzgerald?

A leader of the group known as the United Irishmen

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

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?

Metaphor

Metonymy

Synecdoche

Simile

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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