Previous Questions (WB Yeats)

1. What is the rhyme scheme of each stanza in "A Prayer for My Daughter"?

a. ABABCDCD  
b. AABBCDDC  
c. ABBACDDC  
d. ABCBDDCC

2. ''All changed, changed utterly: A terrible beauty is born.'' This extract is taken from W. B. Yeats' poem titled ____. [44th BCS]

a. No Second Troy
b. Easter, 1916
c. The Second Coming
d. The Wild Swans at Coole

3. Which poem of Yeats provided the title for a book by Chinua Achebe?

a. Easter 1916
b. The Second Coming
c. Leda and the Swan
d. Sailing to Byzantium

4. The words “hearts have not grown old” and “unwearied still” collectively suggest—

a) Nature’s stagnation  
b) The swans’ eternal vitality  
c) Human superiority  
d) Political stability

5. What is Spiritus Mundi? [49th BCS Subjective English]

(a) A beast
(b) A sphinx
(c) The collective soul of the world
(d) Christ

6. Which historical event is metaphorically linked to Maud Gonne in the poem?

a) The French Revolution  
b) The burning of Troy  
c) The Easter Rising  
d) The Boer War

7. In which poetry collection did No Second Troy later appear?

a) The Wild Swans at Coole  
b) Responsibilities  
c) The Green Helmet and Other Poems  
d) The Wind Among the Reeds

8. “Twenty centuries of stony sleep” refers to— [49th BCS Subjective English]

(a) Age of Pyramids
(b) Age of Wars
(c) Middle Ages
(d) The time since Christ’s birth

9. Yeats’s symbol of Byzantium suggests—. [49th BCS Subjective English]

(a) Escape into mythical violence
(b) Return of pastoral innocence
(c) Perfection of art beyond time
(d) The chaos of cyclical history

10. In The Second Coming, the poem’s apocalyptic tone is intensified by— [49th BCS Subjective English]

(a) the rhyming scheme
(b) irregular meter, prophetic diction and ominous imagery
(c) lightened irony
(d) lyrical repetition

11. Which literary device is used in the line “All changed, changed utterly”? [49th BCS Subjective English]

(a) Simile
(b) Metaphor
(c) Anaphora
(d) Alliteration

12. What does Yeats’s use of golden imagery signify? [49th BCS Subjective English]

(a) Literal wealth
(b) Spiritual permanence and aesthetic perfection
(c) Political power
(d) Irish folklore

13. The line “The nineteenth autumn has come upon me” indicates—

a) The speaker’s excitement  
b) The passage of time and aging  
c) A historical event  
d) Political change

14. What literary movement is the author of "A Prayer for My Daughter" most associated with?

a. Modernism  
b. Romanticism  
c. Realism  
d. Victorianism

15. The line "assault and battery of the wind" employs which device to depict nature’s force?

a. allusion  
b. simile  
c. personification 
  d. hyperbole

16. What does "Hearts are not had as a gift but hearts are earned" suggest about love?

a. it is freely given  
b. it requires effort and virtue  
c. it depends on beauty 
 d. it is unattainable

17. “An aged man is but a paltry thing, / A tattered coat upon a stick.” What literary device is used here?

a. Hyperbole 
 b. Metaphor 
 c. Irony  
d. Simile

18. In the line “Fish, flesh, or fowl,” which sound technique is used?

a. Alliteration of /f/  
b. Assonance  
c. Parataxis  
d. Apostrophe

19. Which Romantic poet especially influenced Yeats’s visionary style?

a. Byron  
b. Shelley 
 c. Blake 
 d. Wordsworth

20. How is “The Lake Isle of Innisfree” structured?

a. Two stanzas 
 b. Three quatrains 
 c. Four couplets 
 d. A single sestet

21. What does the phrase "twenty centuries of stony sleep" refer to?

a. A period of peace  
b. A period of inactivity  
c. A long period of turmoil  
d. A long period of rest

22. What literary device is used in “the falcon cannot hear the falconer”?

a. Metaphor  
b. Simile  
c. Hyperbole  
d. Irony

23. How many stanzas are there in the poem 'Easter, 1916' and what is the significance of the structure?

a. 2 stanzas; Reflects political fanaticism 
b. 5 stanzas; Depicts natural imagery  
c. 4 stanzas; Symbolizes 1916 and April 24  
d. 3 stanzas; Represents different emotions

24. Which Shakespearean play does Yeats allude to in the poem “Easter, 1916”?

a. Hamlet  
b. Macbeth 
 c. King Lear 
 d. Othello

25. In Yeats’s poetry, the concept of the “gyre” symbolizes—

a) Eternal peace
b) Cyclical history and inevitable change
c) Religious salvation
d) Personal memory

26. Which thematic tension is central to Sailing to Byzantium?

a) Love vs betrayal
b) Youth vs old age
c) Nature vs industrialization
d) War vs peace

27. The theme of “art as immortality” is most strongly expressed in—

a) The Lake Isle of Innisfree
b) Sailing to Byzantium
c) Easter 1916
d) When You Are Old

28. Yeats’s portrayal of Maud Gonne in his poetry contributes mainly to which theme?

a) Political revolution
b) Unattainable ideal love
c) Religious devotion
d) Social realism

29. Yeats’s use of “mask” (persona) in his poetry suggests—

a) Rejection of identity
b) Multiplicity and constructed identity
c) Simplicity of character
d) Pure realism

30. The theme of “tragic joy” (simultaneous beauty and horror) is most evident in—

a) Easter 1916
b) The Lake Isle of Innisfree
c) When You Are Old
d) Down by the Salley Gardens

31. The “centre cannot hold” suggests a failure of—

a) Nature
b) Political systems only
c) Moral and structural authority
d) Individual identity