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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. Line 83, “nor gold-gives as there once were,” offers an example of which of the following?
(a) Cunning.
(b) Künstlerroman.
(c) Curling.
(d) Kenning.

2. To what does "be on his way" refer (l. 74)?
(a) Life.
(b) Commuting.
(c) Death.
(d) Vacation.

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

4. In the phrase “nor so bold in deeds, nor so beloved of his lord” (l. 41), how many times is the alliteration iterated?
(a) 3.
(b) 2.
(c) 5.
(d) 4.

5. In line 44, “He has no thought of the harp or the taking of rings,” there is an example of which of the following?
(a) Simile.
(b) Allegory.
(c) Synecdoche.
(d) Metonymy.

Short Answer Questions

1. Which of the following is NOT hanging "in the balance before its due time" (ll. 68-70)?

2. The narrator remarks that "The joys of the Lord than this dead life" are which of the following (ll. 64-65)?

3. What happens to the earth's nobility (l. 89)?

4. How often will the narrator believe in the endurance of physical things (ll. 66-67)?

5. Which of the following does the narrator note is a favorable state (ll. 39-43)?

Short Essay Questions

1. Consider the narrator’s assertion that “Always, for everyone, one of three things / hangs in the balance before its due time: / illness or age or attack by the sword / wrests life away from one doomed to die” (ll. 68-71). What tone is conveyed by the passage, and how is it conveyed?

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

3. 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?

4. 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?

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

6. 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?

7. 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?

8. 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)?

9. Consider the narrator’s statement that “And so now my thought flies out from my breast, / my spirit moves with the sea-flood. / roams widely over the whale’s home, / to the corners of the earth, and comes back to me / greedy and hungry” (ll. 58-62). What tone is conveyed by the passage, and how is it conveyed?

10. 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?

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