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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. The narrator describes how many people as fearless (ll. 39-43)?
(a) All.
(b) None.
(c) One.
(d) Some.

2. Which of the following is NOT hanging "in the balance before its due time" (ll. 68-70)?
(a) Attack by the sword.
(b) Age.
(c) Being put in prison.
(d) Illness.

3. Which of the following does he have "who hastens to sea" (l. 47)?
(a) Hurting.
(b) Growing.
(c) Surfing.
(d) Longing.

4. Which of the following does the narrator exclude from the mind of one who seeks to sail (ll. 44-47)?
(a) Making of things.
(b) Taking of rings.
(c) A songbird that sings.
(d) Crowns of the kings.

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

Short Answer Questions

1. Who remains to rule the world (l. 87)?

2. Which of the following will "urge the eager-hearted / spirit to travel" (ll. 48-52)?

3. To which of the following does "his fleshly cloak" (l. 94) refer?

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

5. Per the narrator, what must a man do "before he must be on his way" (ll. 74-79)?

Short Essay Questions

1. 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?

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

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. 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. 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?

6. 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?

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

8. 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?

9. 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?

10. 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?

(see the answer keys)

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