Byzantium Quizzes

Byzantium Quiz Vocabulary, Form, and Literary Devices

1 What does the word "mire" most closely mean?

Muck

Tower

Center

Ocean
2 Who is Hades?

The Greek god of the underworld

A famous patriarch of the early Orthodox Church

An Egyptian pharaoh

The emperor who founded the city of Constantinople
3 What type of stanzas make up the poem?

Quintains

Octaves

Tercets

Sestets
4 What does the word "begot" most closely mean?

Possessed

Tricked

Understood

Created
5 What is the poem's form?

It does not follow a traditional form

Villanelle

Sestina

Sonnet
6 Which type of meter are most of the poem's lines written in?

Iambic trimeter

Iambic pentameter

Trochaic trimeter

Iambic tetrameter
7 What does the word "superhuman" most closely mean?

Animal-like and instinctive

Possessed of unusual or magical powers

Very large

Extremely human-like
8 What is the meter of the line "breathless mouths may summon"?

Dactylic pentameter

Iambic trimeter

Iambic pentameter

Trochaic trimeter
9 What does the word "bobbin" most closely mean?

An implement used in sewing and weaving

A multi-story Ottoman mansion

A despotic ruler, especially in the ancient world

A type of ballroom dance popular in the early 20th century
10 What does the word "shade" most closely mean?

Night

Ghost

Tent

Curtain
11 What does the word "singe" most closely mean?

Opera

Burn

Clean

Monkey
12 Which objects are personified in this work?

The marbles

The moon

The domes

The bobbin
13 What does the word "smithies" most closely mean?

Members of the royal court

Metal forgeries

Narrow alleyways

Rivers to the underworld
14 What is the rhyme scheme of each stanza?

ABBACDDC

AABBCDDC

ABABCBCDC

ABABCDCD
15 What is the meter of the line "Fresh images beget"?

Iambic pentameter

Spondaic pentameter

Trochaic tetrameter

Iambic trimeter
16 The line "Can like the cocks of Hades crow" contains an instance of what?

Metonymy

Personification

Metaphor

Simile
17 What does the word "flit" most closely mean?

Blink

Equivocate

Dart

Hide
18 What is the meter of the line "Can like the cocks of Hades crow"?

Iambic tetrameter

Trochaic tetrameter

Trochaic trimeter

Dactylic pentameter
19 What does the word "gong" most closely mean?

A meter that Yeats made up and used in his poetry

An instrument that can be struck to make a ringing sound

A type of Byzantine church

A wormlike creature from Greek myth
20 Which of the following phrases is not alliterative?

"cannot singe a sleeve"

"Night resonance recedes"

"mire or blood"

"moonlit dome disdains"
21 Which best describes the poem's conflict?

It is a conflict between the Byzantine and Persian empires

It is a conflict between the speaker and the shade

It is a conflict between spiritual and physical existence

It is a conflict between the Emperor and his soldiery on the one hand, and everyday citizens on the other
22 To which of the following does Yeats frequent allude in this work?

Ottoman history

Easter Orthodox theology

Celtic legend

Greek myth
23 Which of the following words is an instance of onomatopoeia?

trance

none of these are onomatopoetic

singe

bough
24 The phrase "mire and blood" is a synecdoche representing what?

Family

The physical world

War

The spiritual world
25 How many stanzas does the poem contain?

3

2

5

4

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Byzantium 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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