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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. Per the Broadview editors (16-17), when is “The Seafarer” believed to have been written?

2. Which of the following does the narrator assert is true of “he whose lot is fairest on land” (ll. 12-13)?

3. From which of the following does the narrator note the tern replies (l. 23)?

4. The narrator remarks he "heard nothing there but the noise of” which of the following (l. 18)?

5. In line 30, “have often had to endure in my seafaring,” relative stress / emphasis falls on the first or only syllable of which of the following?

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 “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?

5. The opening passages of the poem has the narrator state that “in days of toil / I’ve often suffered troubled times, / hard heartache” (ll. 2-4). What rhetorical appeal/s does the narrator make in doing so?

6. 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?

7. The second sentence of the poem reads "Pinched with cold / were my feet, bound by frost / in cold fetters, while cares seethed / hot around my heart, hunger tore from within / my sea-weary mind" (ll. 8-12). Three things are put into juxtaposition. What are they, and what effect does the juxtaposition have?

8. 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?

9. Consider the symbolism of the swan-song the narrator mentions (ll. 19-20). What rhetorical appeal/s does the narrator make in evoking it?

10. The narrator states that “The night-shadow darkened; snow came from the north, / frost bound the ground, hail fell on earth, / coldest of grains” (ll. 31-33). What rhetorical appeal/s does the narrator make in the statement?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Consider the central message of "The Seafarer." Argue how the message and / or its support is incorrect; identify the weaknesses in the poem's central message and / or the way it presents the message, articulating why the identified weaknesses are, in fact, weaknesses.

Essay Topic 2

Consider ll. 80-90, “The days are lost” through “throughout middle-earth.” The passage speaks to a commonplace attitude, namely that things were better in earlier days. Given the historical and physical contexts of “The Seafarer,” why might such an attitude have been true for members of the poem’s presumed primary audience? What in the contexts would make it so, and how would they do so?

Essay Topic 3

Consider how effectively "The Seafarer" puts across its central message to its PRESUMED PRIMARY AUDIENCE (that is, the people at Exeter Cathedral who would have read or heard the text in the Middle Ages). Consider also how effectively the poem puts across its central message for YOU as a current reader. What do the similarities / differences in the poem's effectiveness suggest about the differences between the audiences? How do they do so? (In effect, you are being asked to compare / contrast the audiences in terms of how and why "The Seafarer" does and does not convey its central message clearly.)

(see the answer keys)

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