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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. Which of the following came from the north (l. 31)?
(a) Snow.
(b) Attack.
(c) Rain.
(d) Wind.

2. In which collection does “The Seafarer” appear?
(a) The Voynich Manuscript.
(b) The Exeter Book.
(c) The Vercelli Book.
(d) The Winchester Manuscript.

3. The narrator describes hail as which of the following (ll. 32-33)?
(a) Best of refrains.
(b) Badly restrained.
(c) Sorest of pains.
(d) Coldest of grains.

4. In the sentence “And so 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 seafaring” (ll. 27-30), which of the following does NOT describe the “he” upon whom the narrator remarks?
(a) Proud and puffed up with wine.
(b) Weary.
(c) Has tasted life's joy in towns.
(d) Suffered few sad journeys.

5. 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?
(a) Parallelism.
(b) Paradox.
(c) Pointillism.
(d) Passant.

Short Answer Questions

1. The narrator describes the screaming eagle as which of the following (ll. 24-25)?

2. 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?

3. The narrator notes that which of the following darkened (l. 31)?

4. The narrator suggests that the seafarer of the title is which of the following (ll. 35-38)?

5. What musician does the narrator claim to have heard (ll. 19-20)?

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 rhetorical appeal/s does the narrator make in the comment?

2. 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?

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 tone is conveyed in the passage?

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

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

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 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?

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

9. 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?

10. 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?

(see the answer keys)

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