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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 l. 80, “delight among heaven’s host. The days are lost,” how many times is the alliteration iterated?
(a) 3.
(b) 2.
(c) 4.
(d) 5.

2. The narrator describes sorrow as being which of the following (ll. 54-55)?
(a) Stinky in the strong-parts.
(b) Sour in the skull-hoard.
(c) Painful to the purse-string.
(d) Bitter in the breast-hoard.

3. How does the narrator describe a brother's soul (l. 100)?
(a) Full of sin.
(b) Full of food.
(c) Empty of sin.
(d) Empty of meaning.

4. The phrase "given up to the earth" (l. 93) is a euphemism for which of the following?
(a) Mining.
(b) Farming.
(c) Death.
(d) Masonry.

5. Which of the following will "urge the eager-hearted / spirit to travel" (ll. 48-52)?
(a) Graves taking bodies.
(b) Groves taking blossom.
(c) Giraffes taking badgers.
(d) Birds taking flight.

Short Answer Questions

1. In l. 85, “and lived in most lordly fame,” how many relatively stressed / emphasized syllables are present?

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

3. With what does the narrator remark a brother may wish to bury his brother (ll. 97-99)?

4. To what does the phrase “summer’s guardian" refer (l. 54)?

5. To what does "be on his way" refer (l. 74)?

Short Essay Questions

1. 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?

2. 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?

3. In ll. 55-57, the narrator returns to something of a motif in the poem, stating that “He does not know, / the man blessed with ease, what those endure / who walk most widely in the paths of exile.” What tone is conveyed by the motif? What purpose does it serve as it follows the previous few sentences that speak to longing for the sea?

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. 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?

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

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

9. 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 rhetorical appeal/s does the narrator make in the comment?

10. 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?

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