The Seafarer 1 - Detailed Summary

THE SEAFARER INTRODUCTION The poem, The Seafarer= is an Old English poem taken from the Exeter Book. The poem consists of 124 lines followed by the single word Amen=. It is considered to be one of the most famous Anglo-Saxon elegies along with the other poems like the The Wanderer= and The Wife Lament=. The authorship of this particular poem is unknown and the time frame is also uncertain. The poem is considered to be an elegy because the speaker laments the loss of old friends, his younger days and the glorious civilizations gone by. The poem can also be called didactic because in the second half of the poem which makes the work as a way to Christian faith. It is written in first person narrative and also be read as a dramatic monologue where the speaker talks about the hardships and loneliness, he felt during the sea voyage but also admits his fascination towards sea. It is also written in alliterative language. There have been so many translations but the best known among them is written by Ezra Pound in twentieth century. POEM ANALYSIS The poem can be divided into two sections on the basis of the subject matter. The first section would be from line 1-63, where the speaker talks about the hardships he faced during the journey through the sea. The second half, from line 64-124 deals with joy of accepting God’s will which exceeds all the wealth and earthly pleasures. From the first three lines, the elegiac, personal tone is established and theme is also disclosed. The speaker talks about himself throughout this poem. He reveals his hardships and sufferings he faced during his time at sea. This make the poem autobiographical in nature. In the first half of the poem the seafarer recalls the desperate days he endured during his journey through sea and exploration to so many places with his ships. He shows his sorrow in his heart, which is the result of his pain in the sea. He would be drenched and overcome by the wildness of the waves and the sharpness of the cliffs when he took the role of night watchman at the prow (or bow) of his ship. His toes would be frozen solid, and his insides would be ravaged by starvation in a way that only sailors can understand. As the poem progresses, the speaker compares his exile life in sea to a land dweller and claims that they fail to comprehend the sufferings to live a winter in an ice-cold sea without any friends or companionship. The Seafarer recalls that all he could hear was the roaring of the sea waves and he took pleasure in the "swan's song," cry of gannet and seagull singing but nothing was compared to the drinking with friends in the mead hall. Again, the image of violent sea comes back to his mind where the storms hit the cliffs and the birds like terns and eagles are also having a bad time with the seafarer due to the cold weather in the sea and this reminded him of the lack’s companionship or comfort. Again, he compares his life in sea to the life of city dwellers who owns the joys of life and waste most of their time in drinking wine whereas the seafarer has to deal with the dark night, the snowing from the north, the freezing cold and the raging waves in the sea every day. Then he shifts his physical pain to emotional where, he is troubled in his thoughts in his heart as he away from land and his spirit is telling his go forth with journey and explore other places. The central theme of the poem can be seen from the lines 39-43 where the seafarer assures to the readers that earthy virtue attributes like pride, greatness, boldness, youth, seriousness, and grace won’t help in the sea voyage. The speaker emphasizes that these virtues will all disappear, melts away in the presence of Fate. Even the person blessed with all these virtues feels fear at the onset of a journey on the sea. The seafarer implies that every person may rely on God’s mercy and the journey of the seafarer in the sea is a metaphor to the journey of a man in earth. He further continues that he has no time for worldly pleasures like sound of harp, the giving of ring or pleasure in woman as he has more grave matters like tossing of waves or taking care of the ship from rough waves and he strives go on with his and journey and wander places. The speaker shifts away from deprivation and winter to fulfilment and summer. The imagery of orchards, flowers, and cities in bloom stands contrast to that of icy winter winds and storms. The cuckoo, a bird of happiness and summer, contrasts with the earlier lists of winter ocean birds. The point is that these pleasant summer thoughts also bring the seafarer to explore to new places and continue with his journey. The narrator reminds his readers that rich men on land do not know the level of suffering that exiles endure. The Seafarer, once again reminds the readers his spirit travelling across the seas and the waves with anticipation. There’s a shift in subject matter and the narrator tells the readers that for him joys of lord is hotter or important than the fleeting death life in earth. It refers to the spiritual journey and proclaims that the narrator has chosen this path which is eternal and never ending. The poet continues he do not believe in the riches of the world which means no one takes his earthly possessions with him when he dies and speaker assures that all men in the world attain death either by disease, old age or in a battle. The Seafarer urges every person to perform great deeds against the Devil so that, when that person does die, he or she will go to Heaven and his children will honour him. The narrator observes that the glorious days of earth have come to an end, there are no kings, no Caesar to perform courageous deeds. Now the world is surrounded by weaker men who display none of their predecessors' dignity nor their qualities. Old age makes men's faces grow pale, their bodies slow down, and their minds weaken. Even if a man fills his brother's grave with gold on Earth, it does not matter because his brother cannot take the gold with him into the afterlife. The poet used it as a metaphor to show uselessness of wealth and reputation to the dead. The speaker further stresses that, a soul filled with sin cannot be hidden beneath gold, because the Lord will find it. The narrator comes to final part of the poem where he points the religious aspects of Christianity according to him. He reminds the readers that God’s wrath is powerful and great. After all, God is the creator of heaven, earth and the sea and moves everything around the earth. According to the narrator, A fool is the one who does not fear his Lord, death comes to him unprepared. And a man is Blessed if he lives humbly and to him forgiveness come from heaven.= Further, he presents a list of lessons or commandments to be learned by the humble person who fears his judgment day. According to the seafarer, each wise person must be humble, strong, courageous, chaste, firm with his friends, and never resort to violence even if enemies seek to burn and destroy him. The man who thinks about God will be comforted by angels. He again stresses that Fate is greater and God is mightier than any man's thought=. According to the seafarer, people should always consider God’s purpose and think of their final resting place in heaven, their home. Here, the speaker talks of the joys, love, and hope that he feels await the faithful in heaven. The poem ends with the word Amen”, which shows that it could have been a prayer by the seafarer hoping for a better afterlife or eternal life. ALLEGORY This poem is also considered to be an allegorical poem as the speaker’s sea voyage is a mere representation of a man’s life on earth. According to the Christian belief, the life on earth is considered as an exile life because their actual life is in heaven with God and it is eternal. The exile of the seafarer in the poem is an allegory to Adam and his descendants who were cast out from the Garden of Eden and the eternal life. This allegory means that the whole human race has been driven out from the place of eternal happiness & thrown into an exile of eternal hardships & sufferings of this world. THEMES: The main theme of the poem is alienation and the loneliness. The seafarer throughout his journey is reminded of days in lands where he used to drink with friends and other earthly pleasures he indulged. The feeling of alienation is shown through the physical conditions he went through in the sea where his feet became cold and he starved for many days where he wanted the companionship or comfort of people. The other important theme spirituality, where even though he was endured with lot of sufferings and hardships he strives to continue with his journey with hope and faith for attaining a better afterlife by surrendering to god. Throughout the poem we can understand there’s an inter mingle of paganism and Christianism. At somewhat the middle of the poem, the narrator conveys that one should defeat the devil deeds even if they die at the end to end to attain heaven. The fighting with the devil shows the pagan practices in Anglo Saxon age and attain heaven shows the Christian aspect. The same theme is shown in Beowulf where is considered as warrior and God, who died for others after defeating the dragon. Other context to the age is when he compares his life to the city dwellers where the city dwellers indulge in earthly pleasures like drinking and spending time in playing harp, or exchanging rings or gifts and spending time with women.