Name:_______________________ “The Seafarer” Worksheet Points:________/15
Directions: Read “The Seafarer” on pages 35-38 of your textbook. Then re-read it as
you complete the following items, independently or with a partner.
1. Who is the speaker of this poem, and in what point-of-view is it told?
2. What seas would an Anglo-Saxon sailor have sailed, and what might the
waters have been like?
3. Who wrote “The Seafarer” and when was it composed?
4. How does the speaker feel about being at sea? Write out lines from the poem
to answer this question. (See lines 3-12, etc.)
5. According to the speaker, can those who are not seafarers (people who stay on
land) imagine how he feels? Write out lines from the poem to answer this
question. (See lines 12-26, etc.)
6. If life at sea is so hard for our sailor, why does he continue to go to sea year
after year? Write out lines from the poem to answer this question. (See lines
33-38, etc.)
7. How does the speaker contrast life at sea with life on land?
a. Lines 13-25
b. Line 28
c. Line 45
d. Others?
8. Identify some kennings (Anglo-Saxon metaphors).
a. Line 53
b. Line 59-60
9. Identify some alliteration (repetition of initial consonant sounds).
a. Line 12
b. Line 26
c. Line 48
10. Anglo-Saxon poets relied on the caesura, or a mid-line pause, to take a
breath. Mark the following two lines with a double slash mark (//) at the place
in the line that contains the caesura. (Hint: Usually, translators have included
a comma or a period to denote the caesura.)
Line 8
“As it dashed under cliffs. My feet were cast”
Line 15
“On an ice cold sea, whirled in sorrow.”
11. This poem was recited in Pagan times and then carried over into the era of early
Christian influence.
a. Identify some Pagan elements.
i. Line 69
ii. Line 99
b. Identify some Christian elements.
i. Line 65
ii. Lines 100-102
iii. Lines 107-108
iv. Lines117-120
12. What do you think an important theme (big idea, meaning) of the poem could be?
13. Do you think there is a lesson being taught? What might it be?