1. Home
  2. GK Questions
  3. English Literature
  4. A Song for St. Cecilia’s Day

A Song for St. Cecilia’s Day — GK Questions with Answers

Current Affairs 2026 Today's GK Quiz Static GK हिन्दी
12 questions
  1. "A Song for St. Cecilia’s Day" was written by —
    1. Alexander Pope
    2. John Dryden
    3. John Milton
    4. Abraham Cowley
    Show answer

    Answer: (B) John Dryden

    It is Dryden’s ode of 1687 for the London musical festival.

  2. St Cecilia is the patron saint of —
    1. poetry
    2. music
    3. painting
    4. medicine
    Show answer

    Answer: (B) music

    She is the patron saint of music and is said to have invented the organ.

  3. The ode opens with the words —
    1. What passion cannot Music raise and quell
    2. From harmony, from heavenly harmony
    3. The trumpet’s loud clangour
    4. The dead shall live, the living die
    Show answer

    Answer: (B) From harmony, from heavenly harmony

    The poem begins by declaring that the universe itself began in harmony.

  4. "The diapason closing full in Man" means that —
    1. music ends in silence
    2. creation ran through the whole scale and ended with man
    3. the organ plays the final note
    4. man invented music
    Show answer

    Answer: (B) creation ran through the whole scale and ended with man

    The diapason is the full octave; creation closes on its fullest note, Man.

  5. In the ode, which instrument raises jealousy and fury?
    1. The flute
    2. The drum
    3. The violin
    4. The organ
    Show answer

    Answer: (C) The violin

    The sharp violins proclaim jealous pangs and the fury of hopeless lovers.

  6. Which instrument is associated with holy love and devotion?
    1. The trumpet
    2. The organ
    3. The flute
    4. The lute
    Show answer

    Answer: (B) The organ

    The organ closes the poem, fittingly, since St Cecilia is credited with inventing it.

  7. The closing line of the ode is —
    1. And Music shall untune the sky
    2. The dead shall live, the living die
    3. What passion cannot Music raise and quell
    4. This universal frame began
    Show answer

    Answer: (A) And Music shall untune the sky

    The power that tuned creation finally untunes it at the Day of Judgement.

  8. The ode is written in which pattern?
    1. Pindaric with strict triads
    2. Horatian, one stanza repeated
    3. Irregular, with varying stanzas
    4. Blank verse
    Show answer

    Answer: (C) Irregular, with varying stanzas

    It is an irregular ode, so that each section can imitate a different instrument.

  9. Jubal in the poem is —
    1. a Greek god of music
    2. the first musician of the Bible
    3. a Roman emperor
    4. St Cecilia’s father
    Show answer

    Answer: (B) the first musician of the Bible

    Jubal struck the "corded shell", and his hearers worshipped the sound.

  10. Dryden’s second ode on music, written in 1697, is —
    1. Absalom and Achitophel
    2. Mac Flecknoe
    3. Alexander’s Feast
    4. Religio Laici
    Show answer

    Answer: (C) Alexander’s Feast

    Alexander’s Feast was written for the same yearly festival ten years later.

  11. "The dead shall live, the living die" is an example of —
    1. simile
    2. antithesis
    3. litotes
    4. metonymy
    Show answer

    Answer: (B) antithesis

    Two opposite ideas are balanced in a single line — antithesis.

  12. The belief that the turning planets produce a perfect music is called —
    1. the harmony of the soul
    2. the music of the spheres
    3. the diapason
    4. the grand chorus
    Show answer

    Answer: (B) the music of the spheres

    The ancient idea of the music of the spheres lies behind the whole ode.

More chapters in this subject