Personal Helicon Quizzes

Personal Helicon Quiz

1 What is the Helicon primarily associated with?

Artistic inspiration

Spiritual healing

Moral redemption

Romantic love
2 What is the poem's major conflict?

The speaker's desire to explore, counter to social expectation

The tension between modernity and local tradition

The speaker's inability to decide whether to live a rural or a cosmopolitan life

The speaker's parents' hopes for him versus his friends' pressures
3 What does the phrase "the trapped sky" most likely refer to?

The appearance of a cloudy sky before a storm

The reflection of the sky

The adult speaker's narrow memory of childhood landscapes

The sky through a stained-glass window
4 What is the focus of the speaker's childhood exploration?

Wells

Ponds

Trees

Caves
5 What does the speaker like about echoes?

They help him hear and understand himself anew

They make him feel that he is not alone, even in remote places

They cause nearby animals to respond

They feel like confirmation of God or other spiritual beings
6 The speaker implies that he has changed his behavior as an adult for which reason?

He realizes that his explorations were insensitive to his neighbors

He does not want to be thought vain or undignified

He must care for his family and cannot take risks

He has become physically weak, though he is mentally sharp
7 The phrase "the dark drop" is an example of which of the following?

Simile

Personification

Understatement

Alliteration
8 How many stanzas are in the poem?

3

2

4

5
9 What is the poem's rhyme scheme?

ABABAB

ABC CBA

ABAB

ABCBCBA
10 To which mythological figure does the poem allude?

Narcissus

Odysseus

Hercules

Persephone
11 What type of stanzas comprise this poem?

5

3

4

6
12 Which word best describes the young speaker?

Kind

Industrious

Listless

Curious
13 What is meant by the word "scaresome"?

Jumpy

Frightening

Scarce

Haunting
14 How does the speaker reconnect to his childhood passions as an adult?

Through writing poetry

Through visiting his old home

Through family stories and folktales

Through documenting the sites he once explored
15 Which sound creates assonance in the phrase "pumps with buckets and windlasses"?

B's

P's

S's

U's
16 Which line contains alliterative R sounds?

"To stare, big-eyed Narcissus, into some spring"

"a rat slapped across my reflection."

"I loved the dark drop, the trapped sky"

"I savoured the rich crash"
17 Which of the following lines contains hyperbole?

"A shallow one under a dry stone ditch"

"As a child, they could not keep me from wells"

"...a rat slapped across my reflection."

"I savoured the rich crash..."
18 Which of the following elements of wells assume the most significance in this poem?

Echoes and reflections

Dirtiness and murkiness

Depth and darkness

Fluidity and movement
19 Which of the following is true of Ireland's holy wells?

They are not true wells, but rather manmade pools

They are often associated with a patron saint

They are usually surrounded by religious buildings

They are largely concentrated in the Dublin area
20 What is the "white face" described in stanza 3?

An unidentified wild animal

The speaker's reflection

The spirit of the local holy well

The speaker's deceased ancestors
21 Which of the following words is an example of onomatopoeia?

scaresome

Crash

Dank

Ditch
22 For which of the following purposes do people often use holy wells?

Cleaning spiritually unclean objects

Watering crops

Healing the sick

Divining the future
23 Which element of poetry does the speaker highlight in the poem's final lines?

Meter

Rhyme

Metaphor

Enjambment
24 Which does NOT describe the poem's tone?

Nostalgic

Contemplative

Bitter

Playful
25 What does the word "fructify" mean?

To sanctify or devote to a saint

To rot or decay

To sweeten

To make something productive

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Personal Helicon study guide contains a biography of Seamus Heaney, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis.

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