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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 phrase “in days of toil / I’ve often suffered troubled times, / hard heartache” (ll. 2-4) offers examples of which of the following?
(a) Alliteration.
(b) Rhyme.
(c) Pentameter.
(d) Euphemism.

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?
(a) To.
(b) Myself.
(c) Try.
(d) For.

3. 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). The sentence offers an example of which of the following?
(a) Kenning.
(b) Curling.
(c) Künstlerroman.
(d) Cunning.

4. The phrase “frost bound the ground, hail fell on the earth” (l. 32) offers an example of which of the following?
(a) Pun.
(b) Hyperbole.
(c) Euphemism.
(d) Rhyme.

5. What musician does the narrator claim to have heard (ll. 19-20)?
(a) The red cardinal.
(b) The wild swan.
(c) The tame goose.
(d) The clucking chicken.

Short Answer Questions

1. The narrator describes hail as which of the following (ll. 32-33)?

2. In line 37, “time and again to travel, so that I might seek,” how many times is the DOMINANT alliteration iterated?

3. The narrator notes suffering in which of the following (ll. 27-30)?

4. The narrator remarks that “Storms beat the stone cliffs where the tern answered them, / icy-feathered; often the eagle screamed, / dewy-feathered” (ll. 23-25). The passage offers an example of which of the following?

5. To what end does the narrator note he is driven (ll. 36-38)?

Short Essay Questions

1. Consider the kenning for hail, “coldest of grains” (l. 33). How does the kenning construct meaning?

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. 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?

4. The narrator remarks that “no sheltering family / could bring consolation to my desolate soul” (ll. 25-26). What rhetorical appeal/s does the narrator make in doing so?

5. 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?

6. 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?

7. 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?

8. 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 tone is conveyed in the passage?

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

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

(see the answer keys)

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