William Blake: "Auguries of Innocence"
Romantic Poetry / Analysis of "Auguries of Innocence"
Section 1: The Opening Quatrain
1. According to the opening line, what can a person see in a "Grain of Sand"?
a) The Ocean
b) A World
c) Nothingness
d) Humanity
Correct Answer: b
2. Where does Blake suggest "Heaven" can be found in the first stanza?
a) Inside a Cathedral
b) In a Wild Flower
c) Beyond the Stars
d) In the human heart
Correct Answer: b
3. What does Blake invite the reader to hold in the "palm of your hand"?
a) Time
b) A Bird
c) Infinity
d) The Sun
Correct Answer: c
4. How long does "Eternity" last in Blake’s visionary world?
a) A single day
b) A lifetime
c) Forever
d) An hour
Correct Answer: d
Section 2: Omens and Animal Imagery
5. What does a "Robin Redbreast in a Cage" do to "all Heaven"?
a) Makes it weep
b) Silences it
c) Puts it in a rage
d) Turns it to stone
Correct Answer: c
6. A "dog starv'd at his Master's Gate" is described as a prediction of:
a) A coming famine
b) The death of the master
c) A winter storm
d) The ruin of the State
Correct Answer: d
7. What is the consequence for someone who harms the "Ox that at the Butcher prays"?
a) He shall never be lov'd by men
b) He shall lose his soul
c) He shall go hungry
d) He shall be haunted
Correct Answer: a
8. Every "outcry of the hunted Hare" is said to do what to the human mind?
a) Wake the sleeping lion
b) A fibre from the Brain does tear
c) Curseth the hunter
d) Stops the wind
Correct Answer: b
9. What happens to a "Cherub" when a "Skylark" is wounded on its wing?
a) Cry for mercy
b) Fall from grace
c) Cease to sing
d) Strike the earth
Correct Answer: c
10. The "Game Cock clip'd and arm'd for fight" is said to frighten which celestial body?
a) The Rising Sun
b) The Full Moon
c) The North Star
d) The Morning Planet
Correct Answer: a
Section 3: Microcosm and Nature
11. Every "Wolf's and Lion's howl" is said to raise what?
a) The wrath of God
b) From Hell a Human Soul
c) A storm on the sea
d) The moon in the sky
Correct Answer: b
12. Who shall feel "enmity" if a child kills a "Fly"?
a) The Spider
b) The Gardener
c) The Worm
d) The Moth
Correct Answer: a
13. Why does Blake warn "Kill not the Moth nor Butterfly"?
a) Their wings are the pages of God
b) For the Last Judgment draweth nigh
c) The sun will cease to shine
d) Nature will weep
Correct Answer: b
14. What does the "Gnat that dances in the Beam" punish?
a) The Sinner’s heart
b) The Miser's Dream
c) The Scholar’s logic
d) The Soldier’s pride
Correct Answer: b
15. What is the result of a "Lamb misus'd"?
a) It causes the grass to die
b) It breeds Public Strife
c) It silences the angels
d) It brings a flood
Correct Answer: b
16. What does the "Catterpillar on the Leaf" repeat to the observer?
a) Thy Mother's grief
b) The song of the thief
c) The falling of the leaf
d) A prayer for relief
Correct Answer: a
Section 4: Social and Political Critiques
17. How does Blake describe "A Truth that's told with bad intent"?
a) Is worse than a serpent's tooth
b) Beats all the Lies you can invent
c) Will never lead to youth
d) Is the devil's own testament
Correct Answer: b
18. What is the "strongest Poison ever known" mentioned in the poem?
a) The venom of a snake
b) Hemlock in a cup
c) Caesar's Laurel Crown
d) The lie of a priest
Correct Answer: c
19. What "deforms the Human Race" like an "iron brace"?
a) Poverty
b) Armour
c) Ignorance
d) Greed
Correct Answer: b
20. The "Beggar's Rags, fluttering in Air" are said to do what to the Heavens?
a) Rend them to pieces
b) Shame them
c) Hide them from view
d) Call down fire
Correct Answer: a
21. The "Soldier, arm'd with Sword & Gun" strikes at what?
a) The heart of man
b) The Summer's Sun
c) The King’s enemies
d) The gates of hell
Correct Answer: b
22. "The Whore's & Gambler's state" is described by Blake as:
a) A curse upon the plate
b) An early end for the great
c) The very Nation's fate
d) A path to the pearly gate
Correct Answer: c
Section 5: Perception and Divinity
23. Blake states that we are led to "Believe a Lie" when we see:
a) With the eye
b) Thro' the eye
c) Without a heart
d) In the dark
Correct Answer: a
24. For those who "dwell in Night," God appears as:
a) A Human Form
b) A shadow
c) Light
d) A ghost
Correct Answer: c
25. To those who "Dwell in Realms of day," God displays a:
a) Human Form
b) Blinding sun
c) Winged spirit
d) Face of stone
Correct Answer: a
26. According to Blake, "Joy and Woe" are woven together as:
a) Opposing forces
b) Clothing for the soul divine
c) Fleeting shadows
d) The source of all crime
Correct Answer: b
27. What runs under "every grief & pine"?
a) A river of divine wine
b) The roots of an ancient vine
c) A joy with silken twine
d) A shadow that is mine
Correct Answer: c
28. What happens if the "Sun & Moon should Doubt"?
a) They'd fall from the sky
b) They'd turn to blood
c) They'd change their course
d) They'd immediately Go out
Correct Answer: d
29. What does the "Emmet’s (Ant’s) Inch & Eagle’s Mile" make happen?
a) Lame Philosophy to smile
b) The stars to lose their style
c) The hunter to be vile
d) The world to pause a while
Correct Answer: a
30. Who shall "never have a Friend"?
a) The man who kills the wren
b) The man who Doubts from what he sees
c) The soldier who goes to war
d) The miser who counts his gold
Correct Answer: b
Section 6: Paradoxes and Proverbs
31. The "Merchant’s Gold" is described as the price of:
a) A piece of land
b) A king's crown
c) The Human Soul
d) A hollow dream
Correct Answer: c
32. What will happen to the person who "mocks the Infant's Faith"?
a) He shall be mock'd in Age & Death
b) He shall wander in darkness
c) He shall lose his sight
d) He shall never find a home
Correct Answer: a
33. The "Bat that flits at close of Eve" represents a brain that:
a) Is full of wisdom
b) Won’t Believe
c) Is lost in a dream
d) Fears the sun
Correct Answer: b
34. The "Owl that calls upon the Night" speaks the fright of whom?
a) The Unbeliever
b) The Sinner
c) The Lost Child
d) The Thief
Correct Answer: a
35. Every "Night & every Morn," some are born to what?
a) Endless Day
b) Sweet delight
c) Hard labor
d) Bitter grief
Correct Answer: b
36. Conversely, some are born to "Endless ______."
a) Sleep
b) Night
c) Sorrow
d) Hunger
Correct Answer: b
Section 7: Deep Context and Philosophy
37. What is the central theme of "Auguries of Innocence"?
a) The superiority of man over animals
b) The interconnectedness of the macrocosm and microcosm
c) A call for violent revolution
d) The beauty of country life
Correct Answer: b
38. What does "Augury" mean in the title?
a) Argument
b) Omen or sign
c) Song
d) History
Correct Answer: b
39. How does Blake view the "tools" versus "hands"?
a) Tools are superior to hands
b) Tools were made, and born were hands
c) Hands are only useful for tools
d) Both are evil
Correct Answer: b
40. What is "The Poor Man’s Farthing" worth compared to?
a) All the African Gold
b) A King’s Ransom
c) A grain of sand
d) A drop of rain
Correct Answer: a
41. The "wild Deer" wandering prevents the Human Soul from what?
a) Fear
b) Care
c) Pride
d) Death
Correct Answer: b
42. What "shines" in the "Realms of day"?
a) The material world
b) The Human Form Divine
c) The Soldier's sword
d) The Merchant's gold
Correct Answer: b
43. Blake suggests that "He who shall train the Horse to War" shall never pass what?
a) The Golden Gate
b) The Polar Bar
c) The River Styx
d) The Pearly Gates
Correct Answer: b
44. What "repeats" the "Mother’s grief"?
a) The weeping willow
b) The Caterpillar on the Leaf
c) The crying babe
d) The setting sun
Correct Answer: b
45. Blake argues that the "Eye" was born in what?
a) A night to perish in a night
b) The morning of the world
c) A garden of light
d) A cloud of dust
Correct Answer: a
46. Which of the following best describes Blake's tone in this poem?
a) Playful and lighthearted
b) Visionary and indignant
c) Scientific and detached
d) Pessimistic and hopeless
Correct Answer: b
47. In Blake’s proverbs, "A Robin Redbreast" and "A Skylark" are symbols of:
a) Natural freedom and spiritual harmony
b) Dangerous omens
c) Simple food sources
d) Decorative ornaments
Correct Answer: a
48. "To see a World in a Grain of Sand" is an example of what literary device?
a) Paradox
b) Onomatopoeia
c) Simile
d) Personification
Correct Answer: a
49. For Blake, "doubt" is primarily a failure of:
a) Logic
b) Imagination
c) Memory
d) Education
Correct Answer: b
50. The concluding message suggests that God is most truly seen in:
a) Distant light
b) Abstract laws
c) Human sympathy and form
d) Thunder and lightning
Correct Answer: c