September 1913 Quizzes

September 1913 Quiz

1 Who is the "O'Leary" mentioned in the poem?
The Irish separatist John O'Leary

The eighteenth-century general William O'Leary

The painter Joseph O'Leary

The mythical Irish warrior O'Leary
2 How does the speaker conceive of the relationship between Irish people today and past Irish heroes?
Ireland today carries the legacy of past heroes, even those whose names are lost to history

Modern Ireland would distress its historical heroes, but this is a positive thing

Modern Ireland has no heroes, because their ancestors all left the country

Ireland's modern middle class has betrayed the heroes of the past
3 Yeats was personally acquainted with which of the people mentioned in this poem?
Fitzgerald

Tone

O'Leary

Emmet
4 Which of the following describes the poem's tone?
Dreamy

Jocular

Bitter

Businesslike
5 What is this poem's rhyme scheme?
ABBCDCD

ABBACDDC

ABCDEF

AABBCCDD
6 What type of stanzas make up this poem?
Quintains

Quatrains

Sestets

Octaves
7 What does the word "weigh" mean in the context of this poem?
Offer input

Carry

Measure

Consider
8 What is closest to a definition of the word "delirium" as used in the poem?
ecstasy

stupidity

unconsciousness

illness
9 Who were the "wild geese"?
The working classes of Ireland's rural counties

Yeats's generation of Irish artists and writers

Orphaned children growing up in Dublin

Irish soldiers fighting in foreign armies
10 How does Yeats evoke the disjunction between past and present Irish people?
By picturing various figures of Irish history touring modern Dublin

By describing their respective homes and clothes

By imagining how a single city has changed over the centuries

By imagining them having a conversation
11 Which sound produces assonance in the phrase "Was it for this"?
The short I sound

There is no assonance in this phrase

The S sound

The O sound
12 What claim is made in the poem's refrain?
That O'Leary is dead but his legacy lives on

That Romantic Ireland is dead

That there is no need for Ireland to be independent

That poets, not soldiers, will save Ireland
13 When did Robert Emmet die?
In 1939, shortly before Yeats's own death

In 1803, when he was executed for planning a rebellion

In 1798, during a shootout with British forces

In 1913, during a dispute over the Dublin lock-out
14 The phrase "maddened every mother’s son" contains which of the following?
Alliteration

End rhyme

Synecdoche

Personification
15 Which 1913 event does the poem's title refer to?
The Dublin Lock-Out

Bloody Sunday

The Spanish Flu epidemic

The Easter Rising
16 Which of the following lines contains the clearest instance of verbal irony?
"men were born to pray and save"

"They weighed so lightly what they gave"

"Romantic Ireland’s dead and gone"

"little time had they to pray"
17 In which of the poem's stanzas is the refrain somewhat altered?
The fourth

The sixth

The third

The first
18 Who is the implied addressee of the poem?
O'Leary

Irish soldiers

Ireland's middle-class population in the twentieth century

The speaker's child
19 The phrase "some woman's yellow hair" is an instance of what?
Situational irony

Synecdoche

Simile

Alliteration
20 What do Ireland's middle classes focus on, according to the speaker?
Food and wine

Luxurious material goods

Education and travel

Prayer and money
21 Who is the poem's protagonist?
The speaker

Fighters on behalf of Irish nationalism and independence

Ireland's children

Robert Emmet
22 The phrase "They have gone about the world like wind" is an instance of what device?
Assonance

Verbal Irony

Metaphor

Simile
23 What is this poem's meter?
Anapestic trimeter

Trochaic hexameter

Iambic tetrameter

Iambic pentameter
24 Who was Edward Fitzgerald?
A fictional character from a James Joyce novel

A friend of the poet's who died shortly before this work was written

An Irish spy in the nineteenth century

A leader of the group known as the United Irishmen
25 The claim that "Romantic Ireland's dead" is an instance of what?
Metaphor

Synecdoche

Metonymy

Simile

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Study Guide for September 1913

September 1913 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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