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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.
Short Answer Questions
1. In line 29, the description “proud and puffed up with wine” is a descriptor meaning which of the following?
2. The narrator comments about “the curlew’s cry for the laughter of men” (l. 21). The comment offers an example of which of the following?
3. Which of the following does the narrator “come to know / on the keel of a ship” (ll. 5-6)?
4. Which of the following does the narrator link to the noise of the sea (ll. 18-19)?
5. What musician does the narrator claim to have heard (ll. 19-20)?
Short Essay Questions
1. Consider the symbolism of the seabirds the narrator catalogs (ll. 20-23). What rhetorical appeal/s does the narrator make in evoking it?
2. The narrator comments that “they compel me now, / my heart-thoughts, to try for myself / the high seas, the tossing salt streams; / my heart’s desire urges my spirit / time and again to travel, so that I might seek / far from here a foreign land” (ll. 33-38). What rhetorical appeal/s does the narrator make in the comment?
3. The narrator remarks that “he who has tasted life’s joy in towns, / suffered few sad journeys, scarcely believes, / proud and puffed up with wine, what I, weary, / have often had to endure in my suffering” (ll. 27-30). What rhetorical appeal/s does the narrator make in doing so?
4. The narrator remarks that "That man does not know, / he whose lot is fairest on land, / how I, wretched with care, dwelt all winter / on the ice-cold sea in the paths of exile, / deprived of dear kinsmen, / hung with icicles of frost while hail flew in showers" (ll. 12-17). What rhetorical appeal/s does the narrator make in doing so?
5. Consider the kenning for hail, “coldest of grains” (l. 33). How does the kenning construct meaning?
6. The poem opens with the narrator saying “I sing a true song of myself, / tell of my journeys” (ll. 1-2). What rhetorical appeal/s does the narrator make in doing so?
7. The narrator remarks that “he who has tasted life’s joy in towns, / suffered few sad journeys, scarcely believes, / proud and puffed up with wine, what I, weary, / have often had to endure in my suffering” (ll. 27-30). What tone is conveyed in the passage?
8. The narrator comments that “they compel me now, / my heart-thoughts, to try for myself / the high seas, the tossing salt streams; / my heart’s desire urges my spirit / time and again to travel, so that I might seek / far from here a foreign land” (ll. 33-38). What tone is conveyed in the passage?
9. The narrator remarks that “no sheltering family / could bring consolation to my desolate soul” (ll. 25-26). What rhetorical appeal/s does the narrator make in doing so?
10. What tone is set by the first 26 lines of the poem? How do they do so?
Essay Topics
Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:
Essay Topic 1
The narrator makes much of the disjunction between life aboard ship and life in the town. What effect does the narrator’s focus on the difference between settled and seagoing life have on the reader? How does it do so?
Essay Topic 2
Consider the present physical context of “The Seafarer” as encountered in this lesson plan—notably in a translation as part of an anthology. Multiple influences will have exerted themselves on the text, not only those leading up to the composition of the original, but also concerns of translation and editing. What effects do the more modern influences on the text—those of the translator and the editor/s—have on your interpretation of the text? How do they exert those effects?
Essay Topic 3
There are a few points in the poem, of which “deprived of dear kinsmen” (l. 16) is an example, where the line Liuzza presents (as well as that in the Old English) is markedly short. What effects do the short lines have for CURRENT readers (that is, those hearing / reading the text today)? How do they enact those effects?
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This section contains 1,153 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) |
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