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Quiz
Quiz: How much do you know about WB Yeats?
Irish poet WB Yeats won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1923.
THIS YEAR MARKS 100 years since Irish poet WB Yeats won the Nobel Prize in Literature.
W.B. Yeats was awarded the prize a century ago for his “always inspired poetry, which in a highly artistic form gives expression to the spirit of a whole nation”.
The National Library of Ireland on Kildare Street in Dublin is currently hosting an exhibition – Yeats: The Life and Work of William Butler Yeats.
The NLI holds the largest collection of books, manuscripts and personal items relating to Yeats in the world.
So, to mark the year that’s in it, why not try our quiz…
What date in 1923 did Yeats receive his Nobel Prize?
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25 September
10 December
31 December
9 August
“And I shall have some peace there, for peace comes dropping slow / Dropping from the veils of the morning to where the cricket sings” - Which Yeats poem is this from?
The Wild Swans at Coole
The Tower
Death
The Lake Isle of Innisfree
Yeats’ brother and fellow artist Jack Butler Yeats won an Olympic silver medal. True or false?
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True
False
How many times had Yeats been nominated for a Nobel prize prior to the nomination that led to his win in 1923?
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Once
Three times
Six times
Eight times
How did Yeats and his wife celebrate after finding out he won the Nobel prize?
They cooked sausages after realising there was no alcohol in the house
They drank a bottle of brandy found at the back of their wardrobe
They baked a cake but forgot about it, leaving it burnt and inedible
They adopted a puppy and named him Nobel
How many terms as a Senator of the Irish Free State did Yeats serve?
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One
Two
Three
Four
"And what rough beast, its hour come round at last / Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?" - This is the end of which Yeats poem?
Leda and the Swan
He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven
Sailing to Byzantium
Second Coming
Yeats was a founding member of Dublin’s Gaiety Theatre. True or false?
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True
False
"Where dips the rocky highland / Of Sleuth Wood in the lake / There lies a leafy island / Where flapping herons wake" - This is the beginning of which Yeats poem?
The Stolen Child
Easter, 1916
An Irish Airman Foresees His Death
A Prayer for My Daughter
Yeats died while on holiday at the Hôtel Idéal Séjour in France. What year did he pass away?
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1927
1934
1939
1947
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