September 1913 Quizzes

September 1913 Quiz

1 Who is the "O'Leary" mentioned in the poem?
The eighteenth-century general William O'Leary

The mythical Irish warrior O'Leary

The Irish separatist John O'Leary

The painter Joseph 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?
O'Leary

Tone

Fitzgerald

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

Bitter

Businesslike

Dreamy
5 What is this poem's rhyme scheme?
AABBCCDD

ABBACDDC

ABBCDCD

ABCDEF
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?
Carry

Offer input

Measure

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

ecstasy

illness

unconsciousness
9 Who were the "wild geese"?
Irish soldiers fighting in foreign armies

The working classes of Ireland's rural counties

Yeats's generation of Irish artists and writers

Orphaned children growing up in Dublin
10 How does Yeats evoke the disjunction between past and present Irish people?
By describing their respective homes and clothes

By picturing various figures of Irish history touring modern Dublin

By imagining them having a conversation

By imagining how a single city has changed over the centuries
11 Which sound produces assonance in the phrase "Was it for this"?
The O sound

There is no assonance in this phrase

The short I sound

The S 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 1803, when he was executed for planning a rebellion

In 1798, during a shootout with British forces

In 1939, shortly before Yeats's own death

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

End rhyme

Synecdoche

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

The Spanish Flu epidemic

The Easter Rising

Bloody Sunday
16 Which of the following lines contains the clearest instance of verbal irony?
"little time had they to pray"

"Romantic Ireland’s dead and gone"

"They weighed so lightly what they gave"

"men were born to pray and save"
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

Ireland's middle-class population in the twentieth century

Irish soldiers

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

Alliteration

Situational irony

Synecdoche
20 What do Ireland's middle classes focus on, according to the speaker?
Luxurious material goods

Food and wine

Education and travel

Prayer and money
21 Who is the poem's protagonist?
Fighters on behalf of Irish nationalism and independence

Robert Emmet

Ireland's children

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

Assonance

Verbal Irony

Simile
23 What is this poem's meter?
Iambic tetrameter

Anapestic trimeter

Iambic pentameter

Trochaic hexameter
24 Who was Edward Fitzgerald?
An Irish spy in the nineteenth century

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

A leader of the group known as the United Irishmen

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

Metaphor

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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