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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 remarks that “no sheltering family / could bring consolation to” which of the following (ll. 25-26)?
(a) My chemical romance.
(b) My exceptional skill.
(c) My brave voyager.
(d) My desolate soul.

2. In line 30, “have often had to endure in my seafaring,” relative stress / emphasis falls on the first or only syllable of which of the following?
(a) Seafaring.
(b) My.
(c) Endure.
(d) Had.

3. Which of the following does the narrator link to the noise of the sea (ll. 18-19)?
(a) The leaping dolphins.
(b) The surging surf.
(c) The rolling tide.
(d) The ice-cold waves.

4. In line 29, “proud and puffed up with wine, what I, weary,” how many relatively stressed / emphasized syllables are present?
(a) 3.
(b) 4.
(c) 2.
(d) 5.

5. The narrator remarks that none “could bring consolation to my desolate soul” (l. 26). How many relatively stressed / emphasized syllables are in the line?
(a) 4.
(b) 5.
(c) 6.
(d) 3.

Short Answer 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?

2. The narrator describes his doubter as which of the following (ll. 27-30)?

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

4. From which of the following does the narrator note the tern replies (l. 23)?

5. Which of the following does the narrator “come to know / on the keel of a ship” (ll. 5-6)?

Short Essay Questions

1. 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?

2. 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?

3. Consider the symbolism of the seabirds the narrator catalogs (ll. 20-23). What rhetorical appeal/s does the narrator make in evoking it?

4. 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?

5. 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?

6. 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?

7. 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?

8. 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?

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

10. 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?

(see the answer keys)

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