Byzantium Quizzes

Byzantium Quiz Vocabulary, Form, and Literary Devices

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

Tower

Ocean

Center
2 Who is Hades?
The Greek god of the underworld

The emperor who founded the city of Constantinople

An Egyptian pharaoh

A famous patriarch of the early Orthodox Church
3 What type of stanzas make up the poem?
Octaves

Quintains

Tercets

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

Understood

Created

Possessed
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?
Trochaic trimeter

Iambic trimeter

Iambic pentameter

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

Animal-like and instinctive

Extremely human-like

Possessed of unusual or magical powers
8 What is the meter of the line "breathless mouths may summon"?
Dactylic pentameter

Iambic pentameter

Iambic trimeter

Trochaic trimeter
9 What does the word "bobbin" most closely mean?
A type of ballroom dance popular in the early 20th century

An implement used in sewing and weaving

A multi-story Ottoman mansion

A despotic ruler, especially in the ancient world
10 What does the word "shade" most closely mean?
Ghost

Night

Tent

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

Opera

Monkey

Burn
12 Which objects are personified in this work?
The bobbin

The domes

The marbles

The moon
13 What does the word "smithies" most closely mean?
Narrow alleyways

Rivers to the underworld

Metal forgeries

Members of the royal court
14 What is the rhyme scheme of each stanza?
ABBACDDC

ABABCDCD

ABABCBCDC

AABBCDDC
15 What is the meter of the line "Fresh images beget"?
Iambic pentameter

Trochaic tetrameter

Spondaic pentameter

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

Metonymy

Metaphor

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

Dart

Blink

Equivocate
18 What is the meter of the line "Can like the cocks of Hades crow"?
Trochaic tetrameter

Trochaic trimeter

Iambic tetrameter

Dactylic pentameter
19 What does the word "gong" most closely mean?
A wormlike creature from Greek myth

A type of Byzantine church

An instrument that can be struck to make a ringing sound

A meter that Yeats made up and used in his poetry
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 Emperor and his soldiery on the one hand, and everyday citizens on the other

It is a conflict between spiritual and physical existence

It is a conflict between the speaker and the shade
22 To which of the following does Yeats frequent allude in this work?
Celtic legend

Greek myth

Easter Orthodox theology

Ottoman history
23 Which of the following words is an instance of onomatopoeia?
trance

none of these are onomatopoetic

bough

singe
24 The phrase "mire and blood" is a synecdoche representing what?
The spiritual world

Family

The physical world

War
25 How many stanzas does the poem contain?
2

3

4

5

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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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