Adam’s Curse Quizzes

Adam's Curse Quiz

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

Aloof

Gleeful

Regretful
2 What does "thereupon" mean?
Supposedly

On top of

Therefore

Right after
3 What is the poem's central allusion?
Paradise Lost

The parables of Jesus

The Book of Genesis

Irish folklore
4 How is the addressee's friend characterized?
As sluggish and weary

As beautiful and kind

As clever and critical

As fiery and opinionated
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 a single forty-line stanza

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
7 The poem's addressee is probably based on whom?
Georgiana Hyde-Lees

Augusta Gregory

W.B. Yeats

Maud Gonne
8 What is the poem's rhyme scheme?
AABBCCDD

ABBACDDCEFFE

ABABCDCD

It does not follow a consistent rhyme scheme
9 Which of the following appears to be true of the speaker?
The speaker is a mother

The speaker is a poet

The speaker is a soldier

The speaker is a banker
10 What is the poem's meter?
Dactylic trimeter

Trochaic pentameter

Iambic pentameter

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

To be recognized as a hardworking poet and lover

To return to prelapsarian paradise

To become a banker or schoolteacher
12 In which poetry collection did this first appear?
The Winding Stair

The Tower

In the Seven Woods

The Wanderings of Oisin
13 What does the word "pauper" mean?
A poet

A poor person

A person who works in a kitchen

A very old person
14 What does the word "idler" mean?
A member of the clergy

A sick person

An artist

A lazy person
15 When was this poem published?
1900

1914

1921

1903
16 When does the work take place?
Christmas afternoon

A summer evening

Early spring

The middle of the night
17 What does the word "high," as used in this poem, mean?
Intoxicated

Physically far from the ground

Wealthy

Elevated
18 Which of the following, according to the poem, is not taught in schools?
The art of writing poetry

The art of reading the Bible

The art of understanding nature

The art of following norms of feminine beauty
19 The line "I had a thought for no one’s but your ears" contains which device?
Synecdoche

Understatement

Metonymy

Personification
20 What does Yeats compare the fading daylight to?
Coins in a pocket

Drops of water from a fountain

The embers of a fire

A dream that has been forgotten
21 Which character does not speak out loud in this poem?
The friend

The addressee

The speaker

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

Hunting

Farming

Childbearing
23 Which of the following is true of the poem?
It switches speakers several times

It expresses skepticism about biblical stories

It is written in the second person

It is a sonnet
24 Which of the following is not described as a casualty or victim of Adam's curse?
Childhood

Love

Physical beauty

Poetry
25 What does the moon symbolize?
The light and redemption found in dark times

The speaker's cynicism about love

The eternal beauty of nature

The omnipresence of the divine

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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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