September 1913 Quizzes

September 1913 Quiz

1 Who is the "O'Leary" mentioned in the poem?
The mythical Irish warrior O'Leary

The eighteenth-century general William O'Leary

The painter Joseph 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 has no heroes, because their ancestors all left the country

Ireland today carries the legacy of past heroes, even those whose names are lost to history

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

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?
Tone

Fitzgerald

O'Leary

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

Bitter

Dreamy

Businesslike
5 What is this poem's rhyme scheme?
ABBACDDC

AABBCCDD

ABCDEF

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

Quatrains

Sestets

Octaves
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?
stupidity

illness

ecstasy

unconsciousness
9 Who were the "wild geese"?
Yeats's generation of Irish artists and writers

Irish soldiers fighting in foreign armies

Orphaned children growing up in Dublin

The working classes of Ireland's rural counties
10 How does Yeats evoke the disjunction between past and present Irish people?
By describing their respective homes and clothes

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
11 Which sound produces assonance in the phrase "Was it for this"?
There is no assonance in this phrase

The O sound

The short I sound

The S sound
12 What claim is made in the poem's refrain?
That poets, not soldiers, will save Ireland

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
13 When did Robert Emmet die?
In 1939, shortly before Yeats's own death

In 1803, when he was executed for planning a rebellion

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

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

Alliteration

Synecdoche

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

Bloody Sunday

The Easter Rising

The Dublin Lock-Out
16 Which of the following lines contains the clearest instance of verbal irony?
"men were born to pray and save"

"Romantic Ireland’s dead and gone"

"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 fourth

The sixth

The third

The first
18 Who is the implied addressee of the poem?
Ireland's middle-class population in the twentieth century

O'Leary

Irish soldiers

The speaker's child
19 The phrase "some woman's yellow hair" is an instance of what?
Alliteration

Simile

Situational irony

Synecdoche
20 What do Ireland's middle classes focus on, according to the speaker?
Education and travel

Luxurious material goods

Prayer and money

Food and wine
21 Who is the poem's protagonist?
The speaker

Robert Emmet

Fighters on behalf of Irish nationalism and independence

Ireland's children
22 The phrase "They have gone about the world like wind" is an instance of what device?
Simile

Verbal Irony

Assonance

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

Iambic pentameter

Trochaic hexameter

Iambic tetrameter
24 Who was Edward Fitzgerald?
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

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?
Metaphor

Synecdoche

Simile

Metonymy

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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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