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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. Which of the following does the narrator note is a favorable state (ll. 39-43)?
(a) Beloved of his brewer.
(b) Beloved of his boys and girls.
(c) Beloved of his lord.
(d) Beloved of his spouse.

2. Per the narrator, what "is the best eulogy" (ll. 72-73)?
(a) The piles of plenty.
(b) The praise of posterity.
(c) The largest grave-marker.
(d) The sturdiest statue.

3. What has the fallen noble host lost (l. 86)?
(a) Hunger.
(b) Tacos.
(c) Sadness.
(d) Happiness.

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

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

Short Answer Questions

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

2. Which of the following does he have "who hastens to sea" (l. 47)?

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

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

5. The phrase “that before he must be on his way, he act” (l. 74) offers an example of which of the following?

Short Essay Questions

1. 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?

2. 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?

3. 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?

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

5. 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)?

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). What tone is conveyed in the assertion, and how?

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

8. 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?

9. 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?

10. 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?

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