Student Question
What is the meaning of the poem "The Seafarer"?
Quick answer:
"The Seafarer" is an Anglo-Saxon poem exploring themes of solitude, isolation, and spiritual reflection. It is divided into two parts: the first describes the narrator's hardships and emotional struggles at sea, contrasting them with life on land. The second part shifts to a religious focus, contemplating the soul's need for divine grace. The poem captures the narrator's sense of exile and longing, reflecting on the harshness of sea life and the search for spiritual fulfillment.
The poem Seafarer is basically a two part poem. I the first part the narrator is describing his excitement, fear, hardships of being out at sea. He compares his wanderlust of the sea life to life in the city. In the second part of the poem the narrator begins to talk of God and what is involved, or how a soul must act to receive the grace and the blessings of God.
There is a very precise and in-depth summary of this poem at the link below.
What does the speaker describe in the first stanza of "The Seafarer"?
"The Seafarer " is an Anglo-Saxon poem by an anonymous author. It exists in one manuscript and has been translated many times by modern poets, a reflection of the timeless themes of solitude and isolation it conveys. It is one of the Old English elegies and shares concepts with others such as "The Wife's Lament" and "The Wanderer," such...
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as the idea of a person exiled from his or her tribe, or rather, the group of people from whom the speaker would have expected care. The first stanza of this poem addresses this in the idea of "breostceare,"literally "breast-care," or nurture. The speaker says he has experienced a "bitter" form of this, which means that he has been offered the opposite of what he would have expected. He has not been cared for by his people.
The speaker is introducing the poem to follow by setting the scene. He promises to tell the truth about himself and the hardships he has suffered. He has toiled, he says, and would like to tell us how this came to be and how it relates to the lack of appropriate "breostceare" he has received.
"The Seafarer" describes the physical and emotional struggles of being out at sea. The speaker describes having to endure the loneliness of sea-travel as well as the difficult winter weather. He says that the cold numbed his feet. Ice and hail pounded the ship. The only thing he could hear was the rush of waves and occasionally a bird's call.
The speaker remembers feeling quite isolated, describing himself, in Ezra Pound's interpretation of the poem, as a "wretched outcast." He envied the lives of those who stay on dry land and longed to return to the warmth and family he might have there. The speaker describes having to sit up on a night-watch to ensure the security of the ship. His hunger, the physical discomfort of the winter sea, and his loneliness were compounded in these dark moments.
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