Byzantium Quizzes

Byzantium Quiz Vocabulary, Form, and Literary Devices

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

Tower

Muck

Ocean

Center
2 Who is Hades?

An Egyptian pharaoh

The emperor who founded the city of Constantinople

A famous patriarch of the early Orthodox Church

The Greek god of the underworld
3 What type of stanzas make up the poem?

Tercets

Quintains

Sestets

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

Created

Tricked

Understood

Possessed
5 What is the poem's form?

Sestina

Villanelle

Sonnet

It does not follow a traditional form
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

Very large

Extremely human-like

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

Iambic trimeter

Dactylic pentameter

Iambic pentameter

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

A despotic ruler, especially in the ancient world

A multi-story Ottoman mansion

An implement used in sewing and weaving

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

Tent

Night

Curtain

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

Clean

Opera

Monkey

Burn
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?

Metal forgeries

Narrow alleyways

Members of the royal court

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

ABABCDCD

ABBACDDC

AABBCDDC

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

Iambic trimeter

Spondaic pentameter

Trochaic tetrameter

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

Personification

Metaphor

Simile

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

Blink

Hide

Dart

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 meter that Yeats made up and used in his poetry

A type of Byzantine church

An instrument that can be struck to make a ringing sound

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

"cannot singe a sleeve"

"moonlit dome disdains"

"Night resonance recedes"

"mire or blood"
21 Which best describes the poem's conflict?

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

It is a conflict between the Byzantine and Persian empires
22 To which of the following does Yeats frequent allude in this work?

Greek myth

Easter Orthodox theology

Ottoman history

Celtic legend
23 Which of the following words is an instance of onomatopoeia?

singe

none of these are onomatopoetic

trance

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

The spiritual world

The physical world

Family

War
25 How many stanzas does the poem contain?

3

4

2

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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