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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 comments about “the curlew’s cry for the laughter of men” (l. 21). The comment offers an example of which of the following?
(a) Rhyme.
(b) Alliteration.
(c) Euphemism.
(d) Pentameter.

2. Which of the following does the narrator remark happened when he "wretched with care, dwelt all winter” (ll. 14-17)?
(a) Hot chocolate was served.
(b) Hail flew in showers.
(c) He took hot showers.
(d) The field filled with flowers.

3. Which of the following came from the north (l. 31)?
(a) Snow.
(b) Rain.
(c) Wind.
(d) Attack.

4. The narrator describes the "salt streams" as which of the following (l. 35)?
(a) Seething.
(b) Churning.
(c) Tossing.
(d) Flowing.

5. Which of the following does the narrator “come to know / on the keel of a ship” (ll. 5-6)?
(a) Care's swellings.
(b) Coarse dwellings.
(c) Care's dwellings.
(d) Car selling.

Short Answer Questions

1. The narrator notes suffering which of the following "in days of toil" (ll. 2-3)?

2. 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). The sentence offers an example of which of the following?

3. To which genre does “The Seafarer” belong?

4. In the phrase “were my feet, bound by frost” (l. 9), which of the following words receives relative stress / emphasis?

5. How many stressed / emphasized syllables occur in the opening comment of the poem, “I sing a true song of myself” (l. 1)?

Short Essay Questions

1. 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?

2. 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?

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 tone is conveyed in the passage?

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

5. Consider the symbolism of the seabirds the narrator catalogs (ll. 20-23). What rhetorical appeal/s does the narrator make in evoking it?

6. 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?

7. 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?

8. What tone is set by the first 26 lines of the poem? How do they do so?

9. 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?

10. 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?

(see the answer keys)

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