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

2. To what end does the narrator note he is driven (ll. 36-38)?
(a) That he might seek a finer brand.
(b) That he might seek his own homeland.
(c) That he might seek a foreign land.
(d) That he might seek a new fruit stand.

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

4. 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?
(a) I and nothing.
(b) There and the.
(c) I and sea.
(d) Heard and noise.

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

Short Answer Questions

1. Which of the following came from the north (l. 31)?

2. The narrator comments "the curlew’s cry ” which of the following (l. 21)?

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

4. In the phrase “were my feet, bound by frost” (l. 9), which of the following words receives relative stress / emphasis?

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?

Short Essay Questions

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

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. 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?

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

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 tone is conveyed in the passage?

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

7. 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?

8. 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?

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 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?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 1,069 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample