1. Who wrote the poem, “The Second Coming”?
a) T.S. Eliot
b) W.B. Yeats
c) Virginia Woolf
d) John Keats
Answer: b) W.B. Yeats
2. In which year was the poem “The Second Coming” composed?
a) 1914
b) 1921
c) 1919
d) 1930
Answer: c) 1919
3. What event heavily influenced the poem, “The Second Coming”? Or. While composing the poem, “The Second Coming”, W.B. Yeats was influenced by –
a) The Russian Revolution
b) The French Revolution
c) World War I
d) The Great Depression
Answer: c) World War I
4. “Turning and turning in the widening gyre”. What does the line refer to?
a) The expansion of hope
b) A bird circling above
c) A spiralling motion or cycle of history
d) A whirlpool in the sea
Answer: c) A spiralling motion or cycle of history
5. “Turning and turning in the widening gyre”. What is ‘gyre’?
a) Rotational Motion
b) Curvilinear Motion
c) Spiralling Motion
d) Circular Motion
Answer: c) Spiralling Motion
6. What does the phrase ‘widening gyre’ symbolise in the poem, “The Second Coming”?
a) chaos
b) order
c) imbalance
d) uphold
Answer: a) chaos
7. “The falcon cannot hear the falconer.” What does the line suggest?
a) The falcon is under control
b) The falcon is out of control
c) The falcon ends the relation
d) None of the above
Answer: b) The falcon is out of control
8. “Things fall apart;” – What is said to be falling apart in the poem?
a) The state
b) Civilisation
c) The centre
d) The home
Answer: c) The centre
9. “Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;” What does the line suggest?
a) All things are unstable
b) All things are collapsing
c) All things are developing
d) All things are bound together
Answer: b) all things are collapsing
10. What is “loosed upon the world” mentioned in the poem, “The Second Coming”?
a) A flood
b) Anarchy
c) Love
d) Hope
Answer: b) Anarchy
11. “Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world.” What does the line suggest?
a) The world is going to collapse
b) The world is under the grip of lawlessness
c) The world will get stability from anarchy
d) None of the above
Answer: b) The world is under the grip of lawlessness
12. “The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere”. What does the line suggest?
a) imbalance
b) dreadful
c) peaceful
d) orderly
Answer: b) dreadful
13. What is said to be “drowned” in the poem, “The Second Coming”?
a) The truth
b) Innocence
c) The falcon
d) Hope
Answer: b) Innocence
14. “The ceremony of innocence is drowned;” – Where is ‘the ceremony of innocence’ drowned?
a) with the tide of the ocean
b) with the tide of the river
c) with the blood-dimmed tide
d) none of these
Answer: c) with the blood-dimmed tide
15. “The ceremony of innocence is drowned;” – What does the phrase, ‘the ceremony of innocence’ refer to?
a) life in ancient times
b) life in the peaceful past
c) life in the unrest world
d) life in the modern world
Answer: b) life in the peaceful past
16. “The ceremony of innocence is drowned;” – What figure of speech is used in the line?
a) simile
b) metaphor
c) personification
d) climax
Answer: b) metaphor
17. What does the poet feel about the conviction of man?
a) It is sustaining
b) It is getting matured
c) It is draining away
d) None of these
Answer: c) It is draining away
18. “The best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of __________”
a) Anger
b) Passion
c) Violence
d) Intensity
Answer: b) Passion
19. What is the poet sure about? Or. What “is at hand” mentioned in the poem, ‘The Second Coming’?
a) War
b) A revolution
c) The Second Coming
d) Enlightenment
Answer: c) The Second Coming
20. “Surely the Second Coming is at hand.” What does the phrase ‘Second Coming’ indicate?
a) impending doom
b) social upliftment
c) prosperity
d) political stability
Answer: a) impending doom
21. “When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi troubles my sight” – What does the phrase “Spiritus Mundi” represent?
a) rebirth of the Christ
b) a metaphor of social upliftment
c) a metaphor of chaos and anarchy
d) visualisation of past, present and future
Answer: c) a metaphor of chaos and anarchy
22. Where does the poet visualise the image “Spiritus Mundi”?
a) on the mountain
b) in the sea
c) in the desert
d) in the sky
Answer: c) in the desert
23. “A shape with lion body and the head of a man” – What image does the poet refer to here?
a) A sphinx-like figure
b) A lion
c) A turmoil state
d) A crucified man
Answer: a) A sphinx-like figure
24. What is the gaze of the creature compared to?
a) the moon
b) the sun
c) the stars
d) all of the above
Answer: b) The sun
25. How is the gaze of the creature described?
a) blank and dark
b) blank and pitiless
c) shining and merciful
d) shining and pitiless
Answer: b) blank and pitiless
26. What does the creature move slowly?
a) hand
b) palm
c) thigh
d) toe
Answer: c) thigh
27. How do the desert birds respond to the creature, “Spiritus Mundi”?
a) They fly away
b) They cry out
c) They circle overhead
d) They reel in the air
Answer: d) They reel in the air
28. “The darkness drops again” – What does the line indicate?
a) the poet enters into the darkness
b) the poet becomes blind
c) the poet comes to reality
d) anarchy comes again
Answer: c) the poet comes to reality
29. How many years did the ‘stony sleep’ continue?
a) two thousand years
b) two hundred years
c) twenty thousand years
d) twenty hundred years
Answer: a) two thousand years
30. “That twenty centuries of stony sleep” – what does the phrase ‘stony sleep’ refer to?
a) the Middle Ages
b) time since Christ
c) a golden age
d) the Neolithic age
Answer: b) time since Christ
31. What “vexed to nightmare” the sleeping centuries?
a) A rocking cradle
b) Human violence
c) A spiritual awakening
d) The beast’s cry
Answer: a) A rocking cradle
32.”……were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle.” – What does the ‘rocking cradle’ indicate?
a) swinging cradle
b) rebirth of Christ
c) cradle made of rock
d) none of the above
Answer: b) rebirth of Christ
33. How does the poet describe the ‘rough beast’?
a) lion’s body with woman’s head
b) lion’s body with man’s head
c) man’s body with lion’s head
d) man’s body with child’s head
Answer: b) lion’s body with man’s head
34. What is “slouching towards Bethlehem”?
a) The Antichrist
b) The sphinx/ rough beast
c) Yeats himself
d) The spirit of war
Answer: b) The sphinx/ rough beast
35. How is the beast’s movement described in the poem?
a) Graceful and holy
b) Slouching and menacing
c) Marching with pride
d) Floating like a ghost
Answer: b) Slouching and menacing
36. What does “Bethlehem” symbolise in the poem?
a) End of religion
b) Birth of a new era
c) Death of innocence
d) A return to purity
Answer: b) Birth of a new era
37. The poem’s mood can best be described as:
a) Peaceful
b) Uplifting
c) Apocalyptic
d) Romantic
Answer: c) Apocalyptic
38. What poetic technique is dominant in the poem?
a) Simile
b) Irony
c) Symbolism
d) Onomatopoeia
Answer: c) Symbolism
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