"The Seafarer" (pp.15-19)

1. 1st verse paragraph (ll. 1-26)
   1. Which examples of diction which indicate the speaker's emotion.
   2. List evidence that the speaker's life at sea is filled with "sorrow and fear and pain"?
   3. How cold is it?
2. 2nd verse paragraph (ll. 27-38)
   1. Who cannot understand why the speaker put himself "back on the paths of the sea"?
   2. Why have night "blacken" and the snow come "from the north"?
   3. What diction is radically different from the language in the first verse paragraph?
3. 3rd verse paragraph (ll. 39-57)
   1. Who feels "no fear as the sails unfurl"?
   2. What is it that motivated the sailor?
   3. What is "the longing" that wraps itself around the speaker?
   4. What does the earth do as the speaker sets out to sea?
   5. What does the speaker suppose about those who dwell on land?
4. 4th verse paragraph (ll. 58-64)

What phrases suggest that the speaker is completely wrapped up in living a life at sea?

5. 5th verse paragraph (ll. 64-80)
   1. What happens to physical possessions?
   2. Which question faces each person every day?
6. 6th verse paragraph (ll. 81-102)
   1. What happens as time passes?
   2. What is transience?
   3. In what condition is the person in ll. 94-96?
7. 7th verse paragraph (ll. 103-124)
   1. Which Bible story is suggested in ll. 103-106?
   2. What behavior should be expected from a person who hopes to come to heaven?
8. The entire poem
   1. What are the two separate journeys that are described in the poem?
   2. How are the pagan and Christian attitude towards life similar?
9. Literary terms
   1. lyric poem
   2. elegiac poem
   3. kenning