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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. The narrator notes that which of the following darkened (l. 31)?
(a) The day-walker.
(b) The night-shadow.
(c) The swift winds.
(d) The new moon.

2. In line 32, “frost bound the ground, hail fell on the earth,” how many relatively stressed / emphasized syllables are present?
(a) 4.
(b) 3.
(c) 2.
(d) 5.

3. The narrator claims to be doubted by which of the following (ll. 27-30)?
(a) She who knows the old wisdom.
(b) He who has tasted life’s joy in towns.
(c) He who furnished commencement gowns.
(d) His own heart and mind.

4. In line 29, the description “proud and puffed up with wine” offers an example of which of the following?
(a) Anaphora.
(b) Antithesis.
(c) Allegory.
(d) Alliteration.

5. The narrator suggests that the seafarer of the title is which of the following (ll. 35-38)?
(a) God.
(b) His spirit.
(c) The narrator.
(d) The man in town.

Short Answer Questions

1. The narrator remarks that “I heard nothing there but the noise of the sea” (l. 18). Relative stress / emphasis falls at the beginning of which words in the remark?

2. In the phrase “to try for myself” (l. 34), relative stress / emphasis falls on the first or only syllable of which of the following?

3. The narrator describes which of the following as his thinking part (l. 34)?

4. The narrator remarks that “the wild swan’s song / sometimes served as my music, the gannet’s call / and the curlew’s cry for the laughter of men, / the seagull’s singing for mead-drink” (ll. 19-22). The passage offers an example of which of the following?

5. The narrator describes the "salt streams" as which of the following (l. 35)?

Short Essay Questions

1. The narrator remarks that “he who has tasted life’s joy in towns, / suffered few sad journeys, scarcely believes, / proud and puffed up with wine, what I, weary, / have often had to endure in my suffering” (ll. 27-30). What rhetorical appeal/s does the narrator make in doing so?

2. The opening passages of the poem has the narrator state that “in days of toil / I’ve often suffered troubled times, / hard heartache” (ll. 2-4). What rhetorical appeal/s does the narrator make in doing so?

3. What tone is set by the first 26 lines of the poem? How do they do so?

4. The narrator comments that “they compel me now, / my heart-thoughts, to try for myself / the high seas, the tossing salt streams; / my heart’s desire urges my spirit / time and again to travel, so that I might seek / far from here a foreign land” (ll. 33-38). What tone is conveyed in the passage?

5. The poem opens with the narrator saying “I sing a true song of myself, / tell of my journeys” (ll. 1-2). What rhetorical appeal/s does the narrator make in doing so?

6. The narrator comments that “they compel me now, / my heart-thoughts, to try for myself / the high seas, the tossing salt streams; / my heart’s desire urges my spirit / time and again to travel, so that I might seek / far from here a foreign land” (ll. 33-38). What rhetorical appeal/s does the narrator make in the comment?

7. The narrator states that “The night-shadow darkened; snow came from the north, / frost bound the ground, hail fell on earth, / coldest of grains” (ll. 31-33). What rhetorical appeal/s does the narrator make in the statement?

8. Consider the symbolism of the swan-song the narrator mentions (ll. 19-20). What rhetorical appeal/s does the narrator make in evoking it?

9. The second sentence of the poem reads "Pinched with cold / were my feet, bound by frost / in cold fetters, while cares seethed / hot around my heart, hunger tore from within / my sea-weary mind" (ll. 8-12). Three things are put into juxtaposition. What are they, and what effect does the juxtaposition have?

10. The narrator remarks that "That man does not know, / he whose lot is fairest on land, / how I, wretched with care, dwelt all winter / on the ice-cold sea in the paths of exile, / deprived of dear kinsmen, / hung with icicles of frost while hail flew in showers" (ll. 12-17). What rhetorical appeal/s does the narrator make in doing so?

(see the answer keys)

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