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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 17, “hung with icicles of frost while hail flew in showers,” how many relatively stressed / emphasized syllables are present?
(a) 2.
(b) 3.
(c) 5.
(d) 4

2. By which of the following were the narrator's "feet, bound by frost” (ll. 9-10)?
(a) Coder flatterers.
(b) Cold feathers.
(c) Cod fetters.
(d) Cold fetters.

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

4. 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.

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

Short Answer Questions

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

2. In line 37, “time and again to travel, so that I might seek,” how many times is the DOMINANT alliteration iterated?

3. Per the Broadview editors (16-17), when is “The Seafarer” believed to have been written?

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

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. 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?

4. 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?

5. 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?

6. 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?

7. 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?

8. 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?

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

10. 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?

(see the answer keys)

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