View a FREE sample

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

Multiple Choice Questions

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

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

3. 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) For.
(b) Try.
(c) Myself.
(d) To.

4. The narrator describes which of the following as his thinking part (l. 34)?
(a) Buttocks.
(b) Head.
(c) Heart.
(d) Belly.

5. The narrator comments "the curlew’s cry ” which of the following (l. 21)?
(a) The laughter of men.
(b) Mead-drink.
(c) Music.
(d) The sea.

Short Answer Questions

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

2. In line 28, “suffered few sad journeys, scarcely believes,” relative stress / emphasis falls on the first or only syllable of which of the following?

3. 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). The sentence offers an example of which of the following?

4. Which of the following does the narrator remark happened when he "wretched with care, dwelt all winter” (ll. 14-17)?

5. To which genre does “The Seafarer” belong?

Short Essay Questions

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

2. 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?

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

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

7. 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?

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 rhetorical appeal/s does the narrator make in doing so?

9. 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?

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)

This section contains 1,064 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample