Similarities Between The Seafarer And The Wife's Lament

The Seafarer, The Wanderer, and The Wife’s Lament all contains faith verses fate. The three poems are very similar and very different. The three poems ranging from a lonely man, to a lost soldier, to a wife’s bedrail. The medieval poems show hurt, confusion, and loneliness.

In The Seafarer one difference is this is a self imposed exile. He was not forced to leave, he chose to leave. The speaker of The Seafarer says his journey is true and he remembers every little detail that happened to him while traveling the ocean in the middle of a cold winter. He experiences loneliness, and hatred for city people. He remembers his struggle through the long cold days. He believes he was called out and that is why he leaves his country. “Called me eagerly, sent me over the horizon.”

The speaker of “The Seafarer” is also an outcast sailing the sea in solitude, and he speaks similarly of his exile from his lord and kinsmen: “Wretched and anxious, in the paths of exile/ Lacking dear friends, hung round by icicles.” (II. 14-15) He seems to believe that if he has lost his fellow warriors and lord, or his friends,

Fate is something that we cannot change and we cannot mess with because whatever we do has been done and will always be done.In Billy Pilgrim’s office he has a religious phrase hanged on his wall and it goes,”God grant me the serenity to accept the things i cannot change, courage to change and wisdom always to tell the differnce”(60).To the tralfamadorians they say that humans don't understand the difference

First of all, in “The Seafarer” the writer discusses the internal conflicts he is having among the waves of the sea. Even though this self-chosen exile causes this man pain and sorrow, peace is not a common entity for him while on land. “The time for journeys would come and my soul/ called me eagerly out, sent me over/ the horizon, seeking foreigners’ homes.” (lines 36-38). The gallant mortal does not doubt that there is no fear among his heart, but his longing for the tides is far too strong to be confined to the dry, lifeless land. His experiences only bring him back to where he feels at home the most - the sea. “But there isn’t a man on earth so proud,/…/he feels no fear as the sails unfurl/…/only the ocean’s heave; But longing wraps itself around him.” (lines 39-47). The way he shows his fearful arrogance is an example again of his internal conflict.

The Seafarer Analysis Through carefully selected diction and figurative language, the speaker uses his experience to advise that living a humble, God-fearing life in contrast to his wealthy contemporaries will lead to a rewarding eternal life in heaven. In the beginning of the poem, the speaker describes his conflicts as a sailor which include harsh weather and monotony. Subject to the tossings of the sea and the harsh winter weather, the sailor is merciless to the forces of nature. In addition to physical abuse, the speaker is in a state of constant sadness and boredom, which is only slightly relieved by the “swan’s song or the curlew’s voice”(18-19).

“The Seafarer,” an Anglo-Saxon poem, is considered by many to have been written by two separate authors. Style differs in the beginning and end, an abrupt shift in both mood and overall focus of the poem. Of the two authors, the first was probably an Anglo-Saxon sailor, and the second was a Catholic monk.

The poems “The Seafarer,” “The Wanderer,” and “The Wife’s Lament” are all similar because they all involve exile. Exile means leaving all your family, friends and a place once grown up in. Now if someone were to leave their country, friends, and family, how would they might feel? Many would probably say it sucks. In this paper I am going to be talking about the three poems and telling the fervent of them.

Similar to the narrator of the “The Seafarer,”the narrator of ”The Wanderer” also experiences exile out at sea. The difference between the exile at sea displayed in “The Seafarer” and the exile in “The Wanderer” is the exile in “The Seafarer” is voluntary, contrary to the exile in “The Wanderer.” “The Wanderer” begins with the narrator mourning the death of his lord and his lack of being able to find a new lord. The poem continues into vast detail on the journey of a man in search for a revived lord after the death of his own.

Society has changed and it is now on the weak to survive because the rich are caring for them by providing money or food; they also throw money in people’s graves to guide them into heaven. The Seafarer knows better and genuinely misses those days, which is why he kept going out to the sea where there are no people bothering him; it is only him and the water. Furthermore, he felt excitement thinking about the sea and, he does not want to, but always felt a desire to go. ; it is like a burden he has to carry every new

The Wanderer is an exiled Anglo Saxon who laments and reflects on his previous life while in exile. Throughout his contemplation we see not only an ascetic renouncement of worldly goods, but also the transient idea that fate is an unavoidable force:

The Seafarer by Burton Raffel was written during the Anglo-Saxon period where the Anglo-Saxon warriors lived to defend their King, like in the story Sir Gawain and The Green Knight. One of the warriors speaks about his challenges and begins saying that his story is not at all joyful. It is a story full of pain and suffering. The story paints a picture of what it means to be “dislocated”, “set out”, all by oneself and how badly it feels. “My feet were cast in icy bands, bound with frost,with frozen chains, and hardship groaned around my heart. Hunger tore at my sea-weary soul. No man sheltered on the quiet fairness of earth can feel how wretched I was”.(Raffel 1) The powerful imagery in this stanza sets the tone that the narrator is trying to

Throughout the history of British Literature, there have always been the themes of loneliness, torment or exile. Many times authors speak from their experiences and at times those experiences have to do with misery and discomfort with their lifestyles. In the Renaissance age, times were not always happy and people chose to pass on stories generation to generation to reveal their feelings and experiences. Poems made a great impact in easing the pain. In the poems, "The Seafarer" and "The Wanderer", the themes of loneliness and exile exist throughout both of the poems. The unknown authors portray the two themes through detail and emotion.

“The Seafarer” and "The Wanderer” are both poems that describe the hardships of the average Anglo-Saxon warrior. These stories show that life during the times of the Anglo-Saxons is not pleasant. In fact, it appears to be tough, fearful, and depressing. In “The Seafarer”, a man describes his horrid life on the sea, and in "The Wanderer”, a man tells his tale of being put into exile and losing all his fellow warriors and lord. Both men feel physical and emotional pain while going through their adventure. The seafarer claims that the sea itself is torturing him by saying “...the sea took [him], swept [him] back and forth in sorrow and fear and pain.” (2-3) The seafarer also explains that coldness is much more than just a feeling but a

[and] so graced by God”. The speaker clearly uses alliteration to express his feelings towards his journey. He also establishes to the reader that he is influenced by a religious motive. His ideas may have contributed to the religious values the Anglo- Saxons believed in: Pagan, and Christian. The man also describes his experience on sea as he , “drifting [drifted] through winter on an ice cold sea, whirled in sorrow, alone in a world blown clear of love, hung with icicles. Through the use of imagery we can understand the isolated setting of the ocean, and how his loneliness led to a deepening sadness. Overall, “The Seafarer” influenced today’s literature through the use of various literary devices. The man’s personal feelings and ideas about