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

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

3. In the phrase “were my feet, bound by frost” (l. 9), which of the following words receives relative stress / emphasis?
(a) Were.
(b) My.
(c) Bound.
(d) Feet.

4. 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) Superposition.
(b) Justification.
(c) Carcinization.
(d) Juxtaposition.

5. In line 28, “suffered few sad journeys, scarcely believes,” relative stress / emphasis falls on the first or only syllable of which of the following?
(a) Few.
(b) Sad.
(c) Journeys.
(d) Believes.

Short Answer Questions

1. The narrator notes a lack of which of the following (ll. 25-26)?

2. The narrator remarks that “Storms beat the stone cliffs where the tern answered them, / icy-feathered” (ll. 23-24). The passage offers an example of which of the following?

3. The narrator describes hail as which of the following (ll. 32-33)?

4. Of which of the following is narrator deprived when he “wretched with care, dwelt all winter / on the ice-cold sea in the paths of exile" (ll. 13-16)?

5. The narrator claims to be doubted by which of the following (ll. 27-30)?

Short Essay Questions

1. 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?

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

5. 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?

6. 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?

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. 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?

9. 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?

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 tone is conveyed in the passage?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 1,075 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample