September 1913 Quizzes

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September 1913 Quiz

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

The mythical Irish warrior O'Leary

The painter Joseph 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

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

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

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

Fitzgerald

O'Leary

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

Businesslike

Bitter

Jocular

Dreamy
5 What is this poem's rhyme scheme?

ABBACDDC

ABBCDCD

ABCDEF

AABBCCDD
6 What type of stanzas make up this poem?

Octaves

Sestets

Quintains

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

Offer input

Measure

Carry

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

ecstasy

illness

unconsciousness

stupidity
9 Who were the "wild geese"?

Irish soldiers fighting in foreign armies

Yeats's generation of Irish artists and writers

The working classes of Ireland's rural counties

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

By imagining how a single city has changed over the centuries

By imagining them having a conversation

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 O sound

The short I sound

There is no assonance in this phrase

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

That there is no need for Ireland to be independent

That poets, not soldiers, will save Ireland

That Romantic Ireland is dead

That O'Leary is dead but his legacy lives on
13 When did Robert Emmet die?

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

In 1939, shortly before Yeats's own death

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?

Personification

Alliteration

Synecdoche

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

The Easter Rising

The Spanish Flu epidemic

Bloody Sunday

The Dublin Lock-Out
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"

"They weighed so lightly what they gave"

"little time had they to pray"
17 In which of the poem's stanzas is the refrain somewhat altered?

The first

The fourth

The sixth

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

O'Leary

The speaker's child

Ireland's middle-class population in the twentieth century

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

Situational irony

Alliteration

Simile

Synecdoche
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?

Robert Emmet

Ireland's children

The speaker

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?

Assonance

Metaphor

Verbal Irony

Simile
23 What is this poem's meter?

Iambic pentameter

Anapestic trimeter

Iambic tetrameter

Trochaic hexameter
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

A fictional character from a James Joyce novel

An Irish spy in the nineteenth century
25 The claim that "Romantic Ireland's dead" is an instance of what?

Simile

Metonymy

Synecdoche

Metaphor

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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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