The Seafarer

Question:

Answers:

1. 
   jamie-wheeler Teacher
   College - Sophomore

   The speaker of the poem is both drawn to the sea and repelled by it. As the poem begins, we sense the latter attitude as he describes his experience battling nature:

   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, drifting through winter

   On an ice-cold sea, whirled in sorrow,

   Alone in a world blown clear of love,

   Hung with icicles.

   As difficult a mistress as the sea can be, just a few lines later the speaker describes his compulsion to return to the sea again and again:

   And how my heart

   Would begin to beat, knowing once more

   The salt waves tossing and the towering sea!

   The time for journeys would come and my soul

   Called me eagerly out, sent me over

   The horizon, seeking foreigners' homes.

   Sources:

   http://www.enotes.com/seafarer

   Rate answer:

    

   • Flag as inappropriate

   Posted by jamie-wheeler on Wednesday June 6, 2007 at 7:06 PM
   
   

You can now ask questions directly from Facebook, add the Ask a Teacher App from eNotes!