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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. In line 37, “time and again to travel, so that I might seek,” how many times is the DOMINANT alliteration iterated?
(a) 2.
(b) 4.
(c) 5.
(d) 3.

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

3. 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.

4. Which of the following does the narrator remark happened when he "wretched with care, dwelt all winter” (ll. 14-17)?
(a) Hot chocolate was served.
(b) Hail flew in showers.
(c) The field filled with flowers.
(d) He took hot showers.

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

Short Answer Questions

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

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

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

5. In line 29, the description “proud and puffed up with wine” offers an example of which of the following?

Short Essay Questions

1. 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?

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 tone is conveyed in the passage?

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

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

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

10. 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?

(see the answer keys)

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