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. Line 66, “loaned, on land. I will never believe,” offers an example of which of the following?
(a) End-stop.
(b) Ensorcellment.
(c) Enthrallment.
(d) Enjambment.

2. What “hangs in the balance before its due time" (ll. 68-69)?
(a) One thing.
(b) One of two things.
(c) One of five things.
(d) One of three things.

3. In l. 70, “illness or age or attack by the sword,” relative stress / emphasis falls on the first or only syllable of which of the following?
(a) Attack.
(b) By.
(c) The.
(d) Sword.

4. In l. 102, “the gold he had hidden while he lived here on earth,” how many times is the DOMINANT alliteration iterated?
(a) 2.
(b) 4.
(c) 5.
(d) 3.

5. To which of the following does "the greybeard" refer (l. 92)?
(a) Hanging moss.
(b) An old goat.
(c) An old man.
(d) An old woman.

Short Answer Questions

1. With which of the following does the narrator note "a brother might wish to strew his brother's / grave" (ll. 97-98)?

2. Which of the following does the narrator exclude from the mind of one who seeks to sail (ll. 44-47)?

3. Line 83, “nor gold-gives as there once were,” offers an example of which of the following?

4. Whence does the narrator's thought fly out (l. 58)?

5. Which of the following does the narrator exclude from the mind of one who seeks to sail (ll. 44-47)?

Short Essay Questions

1. Consider ll. 64-66, “because hotter to me / are the joys of the Lord than this dead life, / loaned, on land.” Given the physical and historical context of the poem, as well as its content, why might “the joys of the Lord” be described favorably as “hotter” by the narrator?

2. The narrator comments that “He has no thought of the harp or the taking of rings, / nor the pleasures of woman or joy in the world, / nor anything else but the tumbling waves— / he always has longing who hastens to sea” (ll. 44-47). What tone is conveyed in the comment, and how?

3. Consider the narrator’s comments that “When life fails [a man], his fleshly cloak will neither / taste the sweet nor touch the sore, / nor move a hand nor think with his mind” (ll. 94-96). What is the “fleshly cloak,” and what wears it? How do you know?

4. The narrator asserts that “And so no man on earth is so proud in spirit, / nor so gifted in grace or so keen in youth, / nor so bold in deeds, nor so beloved of his lord, / that he never has sorrow over his seafaring, / when he sees what the Lord might have in store for him” (ll. 39-43). What tone is conveyed in the assertion, and how?

5. What is the strongest pattern of alliteration in line line 42, "that he never has sorrow over his seafaring," and why?

6. What tone is present in the following passage, and how is it conveyed? “The days are lost, / and all the pomp of this earthly kingdom; / there are now neither kings nor emperors / nor gold-givers as there once were, / when they did the greatest glorious deeds / and lived in most lordly fame” (ll. 80-85)?

7. The narrator asserts that “And so no man on earth is so proud in spirit, / nor so gifted in grace or so keen in youth, / nor so bold in deeds, nor so beloved of his lord, / that he never has sorrow over his seafaring, / when he sees what the Lord might have in store for him” (ll. 39-43). What rhetorical appeal/s does the narrator make in the assertion?The narrator asserts that “And so no man on earth is so proud in spirit, / nor so gifted in grace or so keen in youth, / nor so bold in deeds, nor so beloved of his lord, / that he never has sorrow over his seafaring, / when he sees what the Lord might have in store for him” (ll. 39-43). What rhetorical appeal/s does the narrator make in the assertion?

8. The narrator asserts that “And so no man on earth is so proud in spirit, / nor so gifted in grace or so keen in youth, / nor so bold in deeds, nor so beloved of his lord, / that he never has sorrow over his seafaring, / when he sees what the Lord might have in store for him” (ll. 39-43). Line 40 stands out from the surrounding lines in using the conjunction “or” instead of “nor,” implying a different relationship between “so gifted in grace” and “so keen in youth” than between “bold in deeds” and “beloved of his lord” (l. 41). What is the implied relationship, and how is it implied?

9. Consider ll. 58-102 as a unit. What is the overall tone of the passage, and how is it conveyed?

10. Consider the comment that “the lone flier cries out, / incites my heart irresistibly to the whale’s path / over the open sea” (ll. 62-64). What is the lone flier? How do you know?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 1,327 words (approx. 5 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample