The Seafarer (Masterplots II: Poetry, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Ezra Pound
- First Published: 1912
- Type of Work: Lyric
- Genres: Poetry, Lyric poetry
- Subjects: Memory, Death or dying, Sea or seafaring life, Fate or fatalism, Birds, Time, Mortality, Night
The Poem
“The Seafarer” is a poem in free verse consisting of some one hundred lines or half-lines, as dictated by the fragmentary nature of the original Anglo-Saxon poem (c. 800). Since the poem is a nearly literal translation, it cannot be analyzed in terms of modern prosody, such as stanzas, rhymes, and meter. Indeed, in the original, spellings vary and punctuation is nonexistent. The poem has, however, a well-modulated movement that derives from a central feeling of isolation, fearfulness, and somber reflection on the human condition and man’s fate.
Writing in...
[The entire page is 1369 words long]
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