Untitled Document Essay

Thomas Smith

English 12
Ms. Koch
September 23, 2014

‘The Seafarer’ and ‘The Wanderer’ Many similarities exist between the poems ‘The Seafarer’ and ‘The Wanderer’. In both the unknown authors describe their feelings of longing for times of the past, an intense desire to continue on their lives of constant wandering, and both are faced with cruel weather conditions that match their equally unforgiving lives. These poems also rely heavily on the use of symbolism to represent the hardships both speakers face.
In ‘The Seafarer’ as well as in ‘The Wanderer’ the authors use the relentless weather conditions they face to symbolize the great challenges in life that both are challenged with. In
‘The Seafarer’ the author uses the sea, unforgiving in its nature as a symbol to describe the lack of love in his life: “drifting through winter on an ice cold sea, whirled in sorrow, alone in a world blown clear of love, hung with icicles.” In ‘The Wanderer’ the author also describes the unrelenting forces of nature as a symbol for life’s challenges: “though woefully toiling on wintry seas with churning oar on icy wave,”. The author of ‘The Wanderer’ again uses weather to

symbolize the feelings of weariness he experienced, when faced with the constant struggles of life when describing a storm battering down a once mighty structure: “storms now batter these ramparts of stone; blowing snow and the blast of winter enfold the earth;”. Both speakers clearly use the unfortunate weather conditions that they are surrounded by, symbolically to represent the harsh lives that they both are living.
In both ‘The Wanderer’ and ‘The Seafarer’ the authors express their yearning for times of the past. In ‘The Seafarer’ he yearns for the times when all was prosperous in his life: “The days are gone when kingdoms of earth flourished in glory.” also the author of ‘The Seafarer’ describes how now there are no “No givers of gold, as once there were, when wonderful things were worked among them and they lived in lordly magnificence.” In ‘The Wanderer’ the speaker reflects on feelings of companionship that are now lost to him: “But gone is that gladness ,and never again shall come the loved counsel of comrade and king.” Reflecting on this companionship of old now lost only results in feelings of sadness for the speaker: “in gladness he scans old comrades remembered. But they melt into air with no word of greeting to gladden his heart.” In both poems the speakers recall these earlier and happier times of their lives with feelings of sorrow in their hearts.
In both poems the speakers grow weary from their lives that consist of

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