The Seafarer

Most images at the beginning of the poem refer to

• coldness
• color
• animals
• heroes

The speaker’s feelings for the sea are best described as

• hostile and resentful
• friendly and loving
• respectful and fascinated
• cheerful and sympathetic

The tone in which the speaker describes earlier times is 

• objective, because he describes past events as a reporter would
• nostalgic, because he speaks with longing
•  bitter, because he speaks of his former companions with hatred
• humorous, because he uses irony to describe the past

The speaker thinks that the world in its present state is

• a.  an improvement on the past
• a.  not seriously flawed
• a.  striving to improve
• without glory and honor

Which of the following statements best describes the speaker’s thoughts about death?

•  He fears suffering and dying a painful death.
• He is afraid of freezing to death
•   He believes that he will die at sea.
• He wants to be buried with gold to please God.

The poem ends with a

•  prayer to Thor
•  statement of the poet’s beliefs
• a.  song of praise for the sea
• return to the speaker’s sea story

Life has taught the speaker that

•   worldly glory and power vanish
•   fate and God help only sailors
• a.  life on land can be exciting
• kings reward courageous acts

That “The Seafarer” is an elegy is supported by all of the following assertions except that the

•  speaker laments something lost
•  poem is filled with a sense of sadness
• a.  speaker begs God’s forgiveness
• speaker stresses the transience of earthly life

All of the following quotations from “The Seafarer” are characteristic of an elegy except

•  “The days are gone / When the kingdoms of earth flourished in glory”
•   “No passion for women, no worldly pleasures”
• “How the sea . . . swept me back / And forth in sorrow”
•  “Called me eagerly out, sent me over / The horizon”