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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. What does the Mariner watch in the moonlight?

2. What leaves the bodies of the crew?

3. The Mariner's heart is as:

4. The Mariner prays to God that if he is not awake, then let him be:

5. What does the Mariner reassure the Guest?

Short Essay Questions

1. Describe the dice game between Death and Life-in-Death.

2. What does the Mariner mean when he says, "O let me be awake, my God! / Or let me sleep alway," in the middle of Part VI?

3. How is Life-in-Death described? What is the significance of Life-in-Death's description?

4. How does the Mariner's attitude toward his surroundings in Part IV change? What does this prompt?

5. In your own words, what is the simile the Mariner constructs after the marginal notes say the curse is expiated?

6. What happens to the Ship after the Mariner faints? Who relates the action of the story while he is unconscious?

7. What do the two spirits discuss at the end of Part V?

8. What two body parts are most strongly emphasized in Part III? How?

9. For how long does the Mariner suffer? How is this significant?

10. At the beginning of Part IV, what is the Mariner's relationship to prayer?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Analyze the superstition of the characters in the poem. How does superstition become a controlling factor in the lives of those on the Ship? How is superstition portrayed in the story? Is it frivolous and silly, or justified? Why or why not? Be sure to cite specific examples from the text.

Essay Topic 2

Analyze the poem's presentation of contrition, redemption, and penance. Explain how each follows upon the other in the Mariner's story; how does he achieve each? How do these three things relate to human nature, guilt?

Essay Topic 3

Explicate the structure of the poem's story. Be sure to discuss complication, climax, and reversal (as well as any other applicable dramatic elements). Analyze how the elements move from one to the next.

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