Poetry
The Wanderer, The Seafarer
and The Wife's Lament
…
?
 Isolated from the European continent, rain-drenched and often
fogged in, but also green and dotted with thatched cottages,
quaint stone churches, and mysterious stone ruins, the island
of Great Britain seems made for elves, legends, and poets.
 Has produced Stonehenge, Robin Hood, and Shakespeare, it
has also produced the theory of gravity, the Industrial
Revolution, radar, penicillin, and the Beatles.
 We tend to associate the British with their monarchy and their
former empire. But we should also remember that while most
of the world suffered under various forms of tyranny, remains
today a source of envy and inspiration for many nations.
 Great Britain has been invaded and settled many times: first
by ancient people we call the Iberians, then by the Celts
(kelts), by the Romans, by the Angles and Saxons, by the
Vikings, and by the Normans. Whatever we think of as
“English” today owes something to each of these invaders.
 A small, isolated country, England is nevertheless the origin
of a legal and political system that many other countries,
including the United States, have since imitated. Over the
centuries, English traditions and language have been reshaped
by the island’s invaders.
 Anglo-Saxon culture, with its emphasis on warfare, sounds as
if it would be an inhospitable place for women. But women
had rights in this society that were sharply curtailed after the
Norman Conquest in 1066.
 Evidence from wills first used during the later Anglo-Saxon
period shows that women inherited and held property. Even
when married, women still retained control over their own
property. In fact, a prospective husband had to offer a woman
a substantial gift (called the morgengifu, the “morning-gift”)
of money and land. The woman (not her family or her
husband) had personal control over this gift; she could give it
away, sell it, or bequeath it as she chose.
 Christianity also offered opportunities for women. Women
joined religious communities, and some women became
powerful abbesses. These abbesses, usually women from
noble families, were in charge of large double houses that
included both a monastery and a nunnery. The ruins of a
monastery later founded at the same site still stand today, high
atop cliffs overlooking the wild, gray North Sea.
Class Notes
Long
Narrative
Larger than life hero
Embodies values of a particular society
–Includes elements of myth
–legend, folklore, history
Has a serious tone
Uses more formal, almost grand language
Bravery in battle
Bards or poets were used to elevate heroes of
the tribes and were usually as important as the
warrior themselves
Faith in God to intervene positively with fate
Influence of old pagan religion
Warfare was the order of the day
Amassing a fortune in battle
Reverence for womanhood—precursor
to chivalry—is expected
Openhanded hospitality is the order of the day
Truth is highly cherished virtue
Great love for personal freedom
Class Notes
-
 The lines do not rhyme.
 The rhythm of a line depends primarily on the
number of beats or accented syllables. Each line has
four beats.
 Reflected the juxtaposition of the Church and the
pagan world
 Each line has a pause (caesura) after the 2nd beat. Each
line is divided into 2 halves, each half having 2 beats.
 Kennings, phrases that are an elaborate and indirect
way of naming person, things, or events, is another
important characteristic of Anglo-Saxon poetry.
Example: the sea is called “the pathless deep” or “the
whale’s road.”
 Alliteration is an important element in Anglo-Saxon
poetry. One or more accented syllables in the first half
of a line almost always alliterate with one or more
accented syllables in the second half. Thus alliteration
binds the two halves of a line.
 Tendency toward didacticism or instruction.
Loyal dependency
Wyrd—fate; the idea that you die when you die, that no
one sings your song.
Sacrifice of self for one’s king or leader
Wergild – man’s price or brother’s fee
Boasting – states names, heritage, parents, parents’
occupations, 3 accomplishments, and 1 future
accomplishment
 Love of glory was a ruling motive
 Allegiance to the king or lord is cherished and
demanded.
 Reverence for womanhood—precursor to chivalry—is
expected
 There is a great love for personal freedom
 Open handed hospitality is the order of the day.
 Truth is a highly cherished virtue.
 Sentiments are usually suppressed
Name
Date
•
Alliteration
•
Allusion
•
Anachronism
•
Archetype
•
Caesura
•
Elegy
•
Epic hero
•
Epithet
•
Exeter book
•
Gielp
•
Hyperbole
•
Imagery
•
Kenning
•
Metaphor
•
Oral Tradition
•
Scop
•
Wyrd
translated by Burton Raffael
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
This tale is true, and mine. It tells
How the sea took me, swept me back
And forth in sorrow and fear and pain,
Showed me suffering in a hundred ships,
In a thousand ports, and in me. It tells
Of smashing surf when I sweated in the cold
Of an anxious watch, perched in the bow
As it dashed under cliffs. My feet were cast
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. The hailstorms flew.
The only sound was the roaring sea,
The freezing waves. The song of the swan
Might serve for pleasure, the cry of the sea-fowl,
The death-noise of birds instead of laughter,
The mewing of gulls instead of mead.
Storms beat on the rocky cliffs and were echoed
By icy-feathered terns and the eagle’s screams;
No kinsman could offer comfort there,
To a soul left drowning in desolation.
And who could believe, knowing but
The passion of cities, swelled proud with wine
And no taste of misfortune, how often, how wearily,
I put myself back on the paths of the sea.
Night would blacken; it would snow from the north;
Frost bound the earth and hail would fall,
The coldest seeds. 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.
But there isn’t a man on earth so proud,
CONTINUED
40
45
50
55
60
65
70
75
So born to greatness, so bold with his youth,
Grown so brave, or so graced by God,
That he feels no fear as the sails unfurl,
Wondering what Fate has willed and will do.
No harps ring in his heart, no rewards,
No passion for women, no worldly pleasures,
Nothing, only the ocean’s heave;
But longing wraps itself around him.
Orchards blossom, the towns bloom,
Fields grow lovely as the world springs fresh,
And all these admonish that willing mind
Leaping to journeys, always set
In thoughts traveling on a quickening tide.
So summer’s sentinel, the cuckoo, sings
In his murmuring voice, and our hearts mourn
As he urges. Who could understand,
In ignorant ease, what we others suffer
As the paths of exile stretch endlessly on?
And yet my heart wanders away,
My soul roams with the sea, the whales’
Home, wandering to the widest corners
Of the world, returning ravenous with desire,
Flying solitary, screaming, exciting me
To the open ocean, breaking oaths
On the curve of a wave.
Thus the joys of God
Are fervent with life, where life itself
Fades quickly into the earth. The wealth
Of the world neither reaches to Heaven nor remains.
No man has ever faced the dawn
Certain which of Fate’s three threats
Would fall: illness, or age, or an enemy’s
Sword, snatching the life from his soul.
The praise the living pour on the dead
Flowers from reputation: plant
An earthly life of profit reaped
Even from hatred and rancor, of bravery
Flung in the devil’s face, and death
Can only bring you earthly praise
And a song to celebrate a place
With the angels, life eternally blessed
In the hosts of Heaven.
CONTINUED
80
85
90
95
100
105
110
The days are gone
When the kingdoms of earth flourished in glory;
Now there are no rulers, no emperors,
No givers of gold, as once there were,
When wonderful things were worked among them
And they lived in lordly magnificence.
Those powers have vanished, those pleasures are dead.
The weakest survives and the world continues,
Kept spinning by toil. All glory is tarnished.
The world’s honor ages and shrinks.
Bent like the men who mould it. Their faces
Blanch as time advances, their beards
Wither and they mourn the memory of friends.
The sons of princes, sown in the dust.
The soul stripped of its flesh knows nothing
Of sweetness or sour, feels no pain,
Bends neither its hand nor its brain. A brother
Opens his palms and pours down gold
On his kinsman’s grave, strewing his coffin
With treasures intended for Heaven, but nothing
Golden shakes the wrath of God
For a soul overflowing with sin, and nothing
Hidden on earth rises to Heaven.
We all fear God. He turns the earth,
He set it swinging firmly in space,
Gave life to the world and light to the sky.
Death leaps at the fools who forget their God.
He who lives humbly has angels from Heaven
To carry him courage and strength and belief.
A man must conquer pride, not kill it,
Be firm with his fellows, chaste for himself,
Treat all the world as the world deserves,
With love or with hate but never with harm,
Though an enemy seek to scorch him in hell,
Or set the flames of a funeral pyre
CONTINUED
115
120
Under his lord. Fate is stronger
And God mightier than any man’s mind.
Our thoughts should turn to where our home is,
Consider the ways of coming there,
Then strive for sure permission for us
To rise to that eternal joy,
That life born in the love of God
And the hope of Heaven. Praise the Holy
Grace of Him who honored us,
Eternal, unchanging creator of earth. Amen.
1 I tell this story about myself, very sad.
My Fate. I can say that –
Listen! I endured hardships recent or ancient
after I grew up, by no means more than now.
5 Forever, I suffer punishment, my misery;
Resurrected, my Lord departed from his people,
over rolling waves. I have grief before dawn –
Where could the leader of the land’s people be?
9 Then, I thought to set out to seek other followers.
Friendless wanderer for my grievous need
that began with the son of man’s intent,
through secret thought, that they separate we two.
13 That we two- most widely in the world
survived most wretchedly, and I longed.
My Lord commanded me “Take sanctuary in this temple!”
I have few loved ones in this land.
17 Loyal friend, therefore is my heart sad
because I accepted a brave man;
unfortunately sad at heart,
his spirit concealed a murderous plan.
21 With friendly intentions, very often we two
vowed we would not separate by death,
nothing else!
Afterwards is that changed.
25 For our friendship, I must far and near
suffer enmity for my dearly loved.
I was commanded to dwell in a wood grove
under an oak tree in this earth grave.
CONTINUED
29 Old is this earth grave. I am seized with longing.
The gloomy valley, the lofty hill,
the grim enclosing hedge is grown over
this joyless abode. Very often here wrath seizes me
33 for my Lord’s journey hence. Friends be on earth,
Beloved, they live, enjoy their beds.
When before dawn I walk alone
under the tree of faith, through these sepulchers.
37 There I sit through a long summer day
where I weep for my misery.
Hardships are many, because forever I am not able
to rest from my grief of heart –
nor entirely after longing for you my whole life.
42 Forever must a young person be sad minded,
with hard hearted thought. And likewise must have
a friendly demeanor, even when her breast
aches in constant sorrow. “Be on oneself dependent,”
46 All the world’s joy. As an outcast
far from his country, my friend sits
under a stone cliff, frost covered in storm.
My Lord, weary spirit, blood flows around
50 in a desolate hall, He my Lord suffers
great spirit care. She remembers too often
delightful abode. Woe to her who shall
long and wait for her Beloved.
The Wanderer
Often the lonely receives love,
The Creator's help, though heavy with care
Over the sea he suffers long
Stirring his hands in the frosty swell,
The way of exile. Fate never wavers.
The wanderer spoke; he told his sorrows,
The deadly onslaughts, the death of the clan,
"At dawn alone I must
Mouth my cares; the man does not live
Whom I dare tell my depths
Straight out. I see truth
In the lordly custom for the courageous man
To bind fast his breast, loyal
To his treasure closet, thoughts aside.
The weary cannot control fate
Nor do bitter thoughts settle things.
The eager for glory often bind
Something bloody close to their breasts.
"Wretched, I tie my heart with ropes
Far from my home, far from my kinsmen
Since a hole in the ground hid my chief
Long ago. Laden with cares,
Weary, I crossed the confine of waves,
Sought the troop of a dispenser of treasure,
Far or near to find the man
Who knew my merits in the mead hall,
Who would foster a friendless man,
Treat me to joys. He who has put it to a test
Knows how cruel a companion is sorrow
For one who has few friendly protectors.
Exile guards him, not wrought gold,
.
CONTINUED
The Wanderer
A freezing heart, not the fullness of the earth.
He remembers warriors, the hall, rewards,
How, as a youth, his friend honored him at feasts,
The gold-giving prince. Joy has perished,
"He knows how it is to suffer long
Without the beloved wisdom of a friendly lord.
Often when sorrow and sleep together
Bind the worn lonely warrior
It seems in his heart that he holds and kisses
The lord of the troop and lays on his knee
His head and hands as he had before
In times gone by at the gift-giver's throne.
When the friendless warrior awakens again
He sees before him the black waves,
Sea birds bathing, feathers spreading,
Frost and snow falling with hail.
The wounds of his heart are heavier,
Sore after his friends. Sorrow is renewed
When the mind ponders the memory of kinsmen;
He greets them with joy; he anxiously grasps
For something to say. They swim away again.
The breasts of ghosts do not bring the living
Much wisdom. Woe is renewed
For him who must send his weary heart
Way out over the prison of waves.
"Therefore in this world I cannot think of a reason
Why my soul does not blacken when I seriously consider
All the warriors, tested at war,
How they suddenly sank to the floor,
The brave kinsmen. But this world
Every day falls to dust.
No man is wise until he lives many winters
In the kingdom of the world.
The wise must be patient,
Never too hasty with feelings nor too hot with words
firm
CONTINUED
The Wanderer
Nor too weak as a warrior nor too witlessly brash
Nor too fearful nor too ready nor too greedy for reward
Nor even too feverish for boasting until testing his fiber.
A man should wait before he makes a vow
Until, like a true warrior, he eagerly tests
Which way the courage of his heart will course.
The good warrior must understand how ghostly it will be
When all this world of wealth stands wasted
As now in many places about this massive earth
Walls stand battered by the wind,
Covered by frost, the roofs collapsed.
The wine halls crumbled; the warriors lie dead,
Cut off from joy; the great troop all crumpled
Proud by the wall. One war took,
Led to his death. One a bird lifted
Over the high sea. One the hoary wolf
Broke with death. One, bloody-cheeked,
A warrior hid in a hole in the ground.
Likewise God destroyed this earthly dwelling
Until the strongholds of the giants stood empty,
Without the sounds of joy of the city-dwellers."
Then the wise man thinks about the wall
And deeply considers this dark life.
From times far away the wanderer recalls
The deadly slashes and says,
"What happened to the horse? What happened to the warrior? What happened to the gift-giver?
What happened to the wine hall? Where are the sounds of
joy?
Ea-la bright beaker! Ea-la byrnied warrior!
Ea-la the chiefs majesty! How those moments went,
Grayed in the night as if they never were!
CONTINUED
The Wanderer
A wall still stands near the tracks of the warriors,
Wondrously high! Worms have stained it.
A host of spears hungry for carnage
Destroyed the men, that marvelous fate!
Storms beat these stone cliffs,
A blanket of frost binds the earth,
Winter is moaning! When the mists darken
And night descends, the north delivers
A fury of hail in hatred at men.
All is wretched in the realm of the earth;
The way of fate changes the world under heaven.
Here is treasure lent, here is a friend lent,
Here is a man lent, here is a kinsman lent.
All of the earth will be empty!"
So spoke the wise in heart; he sits alone with his mystery.
He is good to keep faith; grief must never escape
A man's heart too quickly unless with his might like a true
warrior
He has sought a lasting boon. It is best for him who seeks love,
Help from the heavenly Father where all stands
Work with a partner to create at least two different kennings for each of the
words below. Remember that the kenning should hint at the quality
(strength, bravery, or function) of the word.
Sword
Shield
Horse
River
King
Ship
Work with a partner to create at least two different kennings for each of the
words below. Remember that the kenning should hint at the quality
(strength, bravery, or function) of the word.
Sword
Shield
Horse
River
King
Ship
Work with a partner to create at least two different kennings for each of the
words below. Remember that the kenning should hint at the quality
(strength, bravery, or function) of the word.
Sword
Shield
Horse
River
King
Ship
Questions for Analyzing and Interpreting the Poem
Answer the following questions as completely and thoroughly as possible.
Whenever appropriate, include specific quotations and line numbers from
the text to support your answers.
First Thoughts
1. What is your first impression of the speaker in this poem? What is his life like? What does
he believe in and hope for?
Shaping Interpretations
2. What passages in the poem explain why the seafarer seeks the rigors of the sea rather than
the delights of the land? Does he find what he looked for at sea?
3. Lines 58–64 suggest that the poet is beginning to talk about the glories of adventuring at sea,
but then he changes direction. What does he turn his attention to over the next sixteen lines?
4. In line 80, the speaker begins to talk about the present state of the world—what does he
think of it? How do these thoughts contribute to the poem’s elegiac tone?
5. The poem ends with a statement of the poet’s beliefs. What are they?
6. This short lyric is full of striking metaphors—for example, “frozen chains” in line 10.
Select three of these metaphors, and explain what is being compared in each one. What
emotional effect does each metaphor create?
7. What do you think the seafarer is searching for?
Connecting with the Text
8. In line 88, the poem’s speaker says, “All glory is tarnished.” Do you think this idea also applies
to today’s heroes and to present-day life? Explain your response.
Extending the Text
9. Could the sentiments expressed in this poem be applied to the homeless today? Find passages
in the poem to support your answer.
10. The Seafarer is full of good poetic language. For example he uses the metaphor, “My feet
were cast in icy bands” (8-9). Find other examples of the following poetic devices in the
poem:
1) METAPHOR 2) KENNING 3) ALLITERATION –
…
The Old English poem The Seafarer provides us with the
richest and most detailed description of the seascape
from its period. The expected images of the weather
and the waves are marginalized by the dominatingly
detailed description of six sea-birds and their cries.
We will watch a music video, by Billy Joel. It is titled,
The Downeaster “Alexa.” Many refer to it as the
Fisherman’s Song.
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LVlDSzbrH5M)
 Fill in your characterization chart based on the music
video and the song’s lyrics (include the tone and
mood).
Music video by
Billy Joel
performing The
Downeaster
"Alexa". (C) 1989
SONY BMG
MUSIC
ENTERTAINMENT
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LVlDSzbrH5M
"
LYRICS - BILLY JOEL
Well I'm on the Downeaster "Alexa"
And I'm cruising through Block Island Sound
I have charted a course to the Vineyard
But tonight I am Nantucket bound
We took on diesel back in Montauk yesterday
And left this morning from the bell in Gardiner's Bay
Like all the locals here I've had to sell my home
Too proud to leave I worked my fingers to the bone
So I could own my Downeaster "Alexa"
And I go where the ocean is deep
There are giants out there in the canyons
And a good captain can't fall asleep
I've got bills to pay and children who need clothes
I know there's fish out there but where God only knows
They say these waters aren't what they used to be
But I've got people back on land who count on me
So if you see my Downeaster "Alexa"
And if you work with the rod and the reel
Tell my wife I am trawling Atlantis
And I still have my hands on the wheel
Now I drive my Downeaster "Alexa"
More and more miles from shore every year
Since they tell me I can't sell no stripers
And there's no luck in sword fishing here.
I was a bayman like my father was before
Can't make a living as a bayman anymore
There ain't much future for a man who works the sea
But there ain't no island left for islanders like me
http://www.sing365.com/music/lyric.nsf/The-Downeaster-Alexa-lyrics-BillyJoel/AB0A755BDDC9E59048256870001F1792
"
LYRICS - BILLY JOEL
”
Well I'm on the Downeaster "Alexa"
And I'm cruising through Block Island Sound
I have charted a course to the Vineyard
But tonight I am Nantucket bound
We took on diesel back in Montauk yesterday
And left this morning from the bell in Gardiner's Bay
Like all the locals here I've had to sell my home
Too proud to leave I worked my fingers to the bone
So I could own my Downeaster "Alexa"
And I go where the ocean is deep
There are giants out there in the canyons
And a good captain can't fall asleep
I've got bills to pay and children who need clothes
I know there's fish out there but where God only knows
They say these waters aren't what they used to be
But I've got people back on land who count on me
So if you see my Downeaster "Alexa"
And if you work with the rod and the reel
Tell my wife I am trawling Atlantis
And I still have my hands on the wheel
Now I drive my Downeaster "Alexa"
More and more miles from shore every year
Since they tell me I can't sell no stripers
And there's no luck in sword fishing here.
I was a bayman like my father was before
Can't make a living as a bayman anymore
There ain't much future for a man who works the sea
But there ain't no island left for islanders like me
•The Elegy
•a poem that mourns the death of a person or laments something lost
•The dominant mood in Anglo-Saxon poetry is elegiac.
•It reflects a sense of sadness over the grimness and transient nature of
earthly life that is found in the epic.
•It is also found in several Old English poems and fragments in which a bard
laments the passing greater days and greater glories.
•“The Seafarer”
•From the Exeter Book, a manuscript of miscellaneous Anglo-Saxon poems
dating from around A.D. 940.
•Based on oral tradition and recorded by monks.
•The “songs” of the Exeter book are the chief source of Anglo-Saxon poetry.
•Social/cultural basis for the poem
•Anglo-Saxons were sea voyagers
•Northern seas were then– as now – especially cruel. The weather is harsh
and the seas rough.
•The speaker in “The Seafarer” is an old sailor who drifted through many
winters on ice-cold seas.
•Primary theme – “fatalism”
•Reflects mood of deep gloom and pessimism
•Life was brief and filled with peril
•One’s fate or wyrd was inescapable
•Many scholars believe A/S were quick to embrace Christianity because it
offered comfort and relief from the bleak pagan outlook.
•Secondary theme - “exile”
•A recurrent theme in A/S poetry
•Isolation might come from accidents at sea or the aftermath of battle
(especially if one’s lord or protector were killed).
•Many A/S poems contrast joy and security of the tribal banqueting hall with
misery or danger
Name
Date
32
Name
Date
”
"
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33
Triple Venn Diagram
Compare and Contrast
Name
Date
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25