Online Test: W H Auden's Poems

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1. Match the poets with the years of birth and death:

2 points

21 February 1907 – 29 September 1973

13 June 1865 – 28 January 1939

Wystan Hugh Auden

William Butler Yeats

Clear selection

2. Match the poets with their country of origin:

2 points

Irish

Anglo-American

Wystan Hugh Auden

William Butler Yeats

Clear selection

3. "I sit in one of the dives; On Fifty-second Street". What is the meaning of these opening lines of the poem 'September 1, 1939'?

2 points

that it refers to one of the dives of bomb from aeroplane during WW-II

that it was written in the Dizzy Club, an alleged gay bar in New York City

that is symbolically means the dive of one bomb can kill at least 52 people

Clear selection

4. In second stanza, there is reference to Luther. Which of the following is true?

3 points

In two of his later works, Luther expressed antagonistic, violent views towards Jews and called for the burnings of their synagogues and their deaths.

He was an African American Baptist minister and activist who became the most visible spokesperson and leader in the American civil rights movement from 1955 until his assassination in 1968.

He was a German professor of theology, priest, author, composer, Augustinian monk,[3] and a seminal figure in the Reformation

He was a politician and one of the Founding Fathers of the United States, who left the Constitutional Convention early because he felt the Constitution violated states' rights.

5. "Find what occurred at Linz" - What does this line mean?

2 points

Linz is the place where Hitler was publicly insulted.

Linz is the birthplace of Hitler. Symbolically, it means, one needs to see what went wrong that Hitler became so monstrous.

Linz is the place from where half-lion, half-human shaped monster took birth

Clear selection

6. "What huge imago made; A psychopathic god:" ---- Who is specifically referred in this lines of the poem?

2 points

Stalin - Russia

Francisco Franco - Spain

Mussolini - Italy

Adolf Hitler - Germany

Clear selection

7. The reference to 'Thucydides' can be seen thematically as ______

2 points

Dictatorship

Democracy

Repetition of History

Greek myth

Clear selection

8. "What mad Nijinsky wrote; About Diaghilev" - With reference to this lines in 'September 1, 1939', which of the following is true?

2 points

Serge Diaghilev was the Russian impresario who took the 19-year-old Nijinsky as a lover and made him the star of his Ballets Russes. Five years later, when Nijinsky left to marry Romola de Pulszki, Diaghilev threw him out of his dance company and tried to destroy his career.

In January, 1919, Vaslav Nijinsky began scribbling in a notebook. Seven weeks later, Swiss doctors studied four notebooks full of his writings and promptly interned him in a sanitarium for the mentally ill. He was only 29 at the time; he was schizophrenic; and while his fame as the greatest dancer of his time never faded, he lived the last 31 years of his life in seclusion and incoherence.

Nijinsky wrote in the diary that Diaghilev wanted to be loved alone. When he left Diaghilev to marry Romola, he was very rude and destroyed Nijinsky's life.

In the context of this poem, it means - The most pompous pro-war speeches spouted by “Important Persons” are not as base as our own jealous wish “to be loved alone.” This is a normal error and not just what “mad Nijinsky wrote / About Diaghilev” (after Diaghilev left him for Diaghilev’s lover); each person selfishly wants what she or he cannot have.

9. Match the poem with the lines:

6 points

What all schoolchildren learn, Those to whom evil is done, Do evil in return.

He disappeared in the dead of winter: The brooks were frozen, the airports almost deserted,

Perfection, of a kind, was what he was after, And the poetry he invented was easy to understand;

Epitaph on a Tyrant

In Memory of WB Yeats

Sept 1, 1939

Clear selection

10. Match the poem with the lines:

6 points

And the lie of Authority; Whose buildings grope the sky:

In the deserts of the heart; Let the healing fountain start, In the prison of his days; Teach the free man how to praise.

When he laughed, respectable senators burst with laughter, And when he cried the little children died in the streets.

In Memory of WB Yeats

Epitaph on a Tyrant

Sept 1, 1939

Clear selection

11. What is the central theme of the poem 'Epitaph on a Tyrant'?

2 points

It is celebrating the death of tyrant

It is in praise of the tyrant, the dictators.

It is about the nature of tyrant. It generalizes a few characteristics commonly found among the dictators.

Clear selection

12. What is the central theme of the poem 'In memory of W. B. Yeats'?

2 points

It is all in praise of W B Yeats who passed away very recently (when the poem was written)

Apart from an elegy on the death of W B Yeats, it is about the usefulness of poetry.

It is all in memory of a good friend of a poet.

Clear selection

13. Copy-paste ChatGPT generated poem in style of 'Epitaph on a Tyrant.

Add 5 points for this in the total score if it is not counted in final score

5 points

14. Copy-paste ChatGPT generated poem in style of 'In Memory of W.B. Yeats'

Add 5 points for this in the total score if it is not counted in final score

5 points

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