What is the Golden Vanity?
Who is the speaker of the poem? (Not the poet.)
What was the speaker afraid might happen to the Golden Vanity?
The cabin boy is described as saucy in line 6. How does he show that he is high-spirited and bold?
What was the cabin boy promised if he sank the Spanish ship?
What does the speaker mean when he says, "The boy filled his chest" (line 11)?
No explanation is given for the captain's treachery. What do you suppose is his reason for betraying the cabin boy?
Repitition is a characteristic of folk ballads, which are a type of narrative poem. A word, phrase, line, or group of lines repeated regularly in a poem is called a refrain. Sometimes refrains are repeated exactly the same way , and sometimes it is varied.1. What part of each stanza contains the refrain? 2. How do the variations advance the story? (Refrain one is about...., refrain 2 is about....)
Every kind of work, hobby, sport, story has its own specialized vocabulary, or jargon. Tennis players for example use words like love, set point, lob, smash, and service. "The Golden Vanity" contains some of the specialized vocabulary words used by sailors. Look up each of the following words and write their definitions. (Make sure you find the definition that refers to nautical or seafaring use.)1. cabin boy 2. hammock 3. larboard 4. messmate 5. tide 6. hove 7. hoist 8. quarter deck