The Seafarer | Themes
Alienation and Loneliness
As a poetic genre, elegy generally portrays sorrow and longing for the better days of times past. To conjure up its theme of longing, “The Seafarer” immediately thrusts the reader deep into a world of exile, hardship, and loneliness. The speaker of the poem describes his feelings of alienation in terms of physical privation and suffering: “My feet were cast / In icy bands, bound with frost, / With frozen chains, and hardship groaned / Around my heart” (8b-11a). The cold that seizes his feet, immobilized in the hull of his open-aired ship while...
[The entire page is 844 words long]
Join eNotes
The above is a free excerpt. Get total access to this content with the:
Summary and Analysis – Themes – Characters – And much more...
Navigate
See Also:
- - The Seafarer summary and study guide in the eNotes.
Tell a friend about The Seafarer at eNotes.
- Add The Seafarer to your favorites