To a Shade Quizzes

To a Shade Quiz Vocabulary and Poetic Form

1 What does the word "Unquiet" mean in the poem?

Restless

Lively

Loud

Bold
2 What is this poem's meter?

Trochaic Pentameter

Anapestic Pentameter

Iambic Pentameter

Dactylic Pentameter
3 What does "open-handed" mean in the poem's context?

Transparent

Generous

Helpless

Poor
4 What does the word "insult" most closely mean in the poem's context?

Retort

Defamation

Rude statement

Abuse
5 Which of the following phrases does not feature assonance?

"foul mouth"

"insult heaped upon him"

"given their children's children"

"when the day is spent"
6 A description of houses as "gaunt" uses which device?

Apostrophe

Simile

Personification

Understatement
7 Who is the speaker?

An unidentified Dubliner

A gallerist

Charles Parnell

A gravedigger
8 Which historical person does the Shade represent?

Maud Gonne

William Gladstone

James Joyce

Charles Parnell
9 Which of the following lines breaks the poem's typical meter?

Whether to look upon your monument

And the gaunt houses put on majesty:

And gather the Glasnevin coverlet

The pack upon him.
10 What is the meaning of the word "Shade" as used in this poem?

Ghost

Awning

Sunglasses

Curtain
11 The poem as a whole is centered around which device?

Anaphora

Apostrophe

End rhyme

Zeugma
12 In which city is the poem set?

Dublin

Manchester

Belfast

London
13 What does the word "gaunt" mean?

Ghostly

Skinny

Angry

Luxurious
14 What does the word "flit" mean?

Lie

Wonder

Gossip

Move quickly
15 Which sounds create alliteration in the line "gather the Glasnevin coverlet"?

G

N

L

T
16 What does the word "lofty" mean?

Snobbish

High-minded

Tall

Wealthy
17 Which of the following describes the poem's tone?

Patient

Exhilarated

Pitying

Wondering
18 Which literary device appears in the phrase "Sweeter emotion, working in their veins/Like gentle blood."

Onomatopoeia

Hyperbole

Simile

Foreshadowing
19 What does the word "serving" mean in the poem's context?

Selfish

Crowd-pleasing

Amount

Helpful
20 What does the word "Glasnevin" refer to?

A mythological character

A holiday

A political party

A cemetery
21 Who is/are the poem's protagonist(s)?

Dublin's middle class

Yeats

Parnell and Lane

The speaker
22 Which of the following rhyme schemes does the poem follow?

AABBCC

ABBACDDC

ABBCDD

ABACDC
23 Which of the following lines is an instance of understatement?

"About your head till the dust stops your ear,"

"Away, away! You are safer in the tomb."

"For they are at their old tricks yet."

"And the gaunt houses put on majesty:"
24 The poem's final line, in which death is described as safer than life, features which of the following?

The line is not ironic

Situational irony

Verbal irony

Dramatic irony
25 What does the word "monument" mean?

Crown

Autobiography

Public Sculpture

Castle

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Study Guide for To a Shade

To a Shade 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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