Adam’s Curse Quizzes

Adam's Curse Quiz

1 Which of the following best describes the poem's tone?
Gleeful

Regretful

Aggressive

Aloof
2 What does "thereupon" mean?
Supposedly

Right after

On top of

Therefore
3 What is the poem's central allusion?
The Book of Genesis

The parables of Jesus

Irish folklore

Paradise Lost
4 How is the addressee's friend characterized?
As beautiful and kind

As fiery and opinionated

As clever and critical

As sluggish and weary
5 What does the word "precedents" mean?
People in charge of institutions

Comforting narratives

Underlying principles

Prior examples
6 What is the poem's stanzaic arrangement?
It consists of twenty couplets

It consists of a longer, 27-line stanza, a sestet, and a quatrain

It consists of two fourteen-line sonnets in a row

It consists of a single forty-line stanza
7 The poem's addressee is probably based on whom?
W.B. Yeats

Maud Gonne

Georgiana Hyde-Lees

Augusta Gregory
8 What is the poem's rhyme scheme?
It does not follow a consistent rhyme scheme

ABBACDDCEFFE

ABABCDCD

AABBCCDD
9 Which of the following appears to be true of the speaker?
The speaker is a mother

The speaker is a soldier

The speaker is a poet

The speaker is a banker
10 What is the poem's meter?
Trochaic pentameter

Iambic hexameter

Iambic pentameter

Dactylic trimeter
11 Which of the following does the speaker want?
To love the addressee in a lofty, effortful way

To become a banker or schoolteacher

To return to prelapsarian paradise

To be recognized as a hardworking poet and lover
12 In which poetry collection did this first appear?
The Wanderings of Oisin

The Winding Stair

The Tower

In the Seven Woods
13 What does the word "pauper" mean?
A person who works in a kitchen

A very old person

A poor person

A poet
14 What does the word "idler" mean?
A member of the clergy

An artist

A sick person

A lazy person
15 When was this poem published?
1900

1921

1903

1914
16 When does the work take place?
The middle of the night

A summer evening

Christmas afternoon

Early spring
17 What does the word "high," as used in this poem, mean?
Physically far from the ground

Elevated

Wealthy

Intoxicated
18 Which of the following, according to the poem, is not taught in schools?
The art of understanding nature

The art of following norms of feminine beauty

The art of writing poetry

The art of reading the Bible
19 The line "I had a thought for no one’s but your ears" contains which device?
Metonymy

Personification

Synecdoche

Understatement
20 What does Yeats compare the fading daylight to?
The embers of a fire

A dream that has been forgotten

Drops of water from a fountain

Coins in a pocket
21 Which character does not speak out loud in this poem?
The addressee

The speaker

The friend

All of the above—the characters sit in silent reflection
22 The speaker compares poetry to which of the following?
Childbearing

Sewing

Farming

Hunting
23 Which of the following is true of the poem?
It is written in the second person

It is a sonnet

It switches speakers several times

It expresses skepticism about biblical stories
24 Which of the following is not described as a casualty or victim of Adam's curse?
Physical beauty

Love

Childhood

Poetry
25 What does the moon symbolize?
The speaker's cynicism about love

The light and redemption found in dark times

The omnipresence of the divine

The eternal beauty of nature

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Study Guide for Adam’s Curse

Adam's Curse 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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