September 1913 Quizzes

September 1913 Quiz

1 Who is the "O'Leary" mentioned in the poem?

The painter Joseph O'Leary

The eighteenth-century general William O'Leary

The Irish separatist John 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?

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

Ireland's modern middle class has betrayed the heroes of the past

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

Ireland today carries the legacy of past heroes, even those whose names are lost to history
3 Yeats was personally acquainted with which of the people mentioned in this poem?

Tone

Emmet

O'Leary

Fitzgerald
4 Which of the following describes the poem's tone?

Jocular

Dreamy

Bitter

Businesslike
5 What is this poem's rhyme scheme?

AABBCCDD

ABCDEF

ABBACDDC

ABBCDCD
6 What type of stanzas make up this poem?

Quatrains

Sestets

Quintains

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

Offer input

Measure

Carry

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

ecstasy

unconsciousness

stupidity

illness
9 Who were the "wild geese"?

Yeats's generation of Irish artists and writers

Irish soldiers fighting in foreign armies

The working classes of Ireland's rural counties

Orphaned children growing up in Dublin
10 How does Yeats evoke the disjunction between past and present Irish people?

By imagining how a single city has changed over the centuries

By imagining them having a conversation

By picturing various figures of Irish history touring modern Dublin

By describing their respective homes and clothes
11 Which sound produces assonance in the phrase "Was it for this"?

The short I sound

The S sound

The O sound

There is no assonance in this phrase
12 What claim is made in the poem's refrain?

That there is no need for Ireland to be independent

That O'Leary is dead but his legacy lives on

That Romantic Ireland is dead

That poets, not soldiers, will save Ireland
13 When did Robert Emmet die?

In 1803, when he was executed for planning a rebellion

In 1939, shortly before Yeats's own death

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?

Synecdoche

Personification

Alliteration

End rhyme
15 Which 1913 event does the poem's title refer to?

The Easter Rising

Bloody Sunday

The Dublin Lock-Out

The Spanish Flu epidemic
16 Which of the following lines contains the clearest instance of verbal irony?

"men were born to pray and save"

"little time had they to pray"

"Romantic Ireland’s dead and gone"

"They weighed so lightly what they gave"
17 In which of the poem's stanzas is the refrain somewhat altered?

The third

The first

The sixth

The fourth
18 Who is the implied addressee of the poem?

Ireland's middle-class population in the twentieth century

Irish soldiers

O'Leary

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

Situational irony

Synecdoche

Alliteration

Simile
20 What do Ireland's middle classes focus on, according to the speaker?

Luxurious material goods

Prayer and money

Education and travel

Food and wine
21 Who is the poem's protagonist?

Robert Emmet

Ireland's children

Fighters on behalf of Irish nationalism and independence

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

Simile

Metaphor

Verbal Irony

Assonance
23 What is this poem's meter?

Trochaic hexameter

Iambic pentameter

Anapestic trimeter

Iambic tetrameter
24 Who was Edward Fitzgerald?

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

A leader of the group known as the United Irishmen

An Irish spy in the nineteenth century

A fictional character from a James Joyce novel
25 The claim that "Romantic Ireland's dead" is an instance of what?

Metaphor

Simile

Metonymy

Synecdoche

September 1913 Questions and Answers

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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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