The Exeter Book is a collection of Anglo-Saxon manuscripts that expresses societal values of the past time. Exile: the state of being barred from one’s native country, usually for political or punitive reasons. Exile was important throughout the poems; one’s lord usually defined his or her identity. Many of the poems in the Exeter Book allude to the condensation of human life, cautioning readers that no one can ever by pass his or her destiny. “The seafarer”, “The wanderer” and “The Wife’s lament”, the characters all share the theme of exile in some type of way. Anglo-Saxon elegies deals with male sociability and the connection between man and his creator, God. Despite the fact that there are many sad poems, “The seafarer” and “The wanderer” are the two that stand out the most. In these two poems both men deal with the loss of social society, and the sense of being close to their God but losing them in some type of way. In the “The Wife’s Lament”, the women also has to deal with the loss of social society and as well the struggle of being separated from her lord, whom is her husband of no choice. The woman is put in a situation that she cannot improve. Exile …show more content…
plays a role in all three of the poems, “The seafarer”, “The Wanderer”, and “The Wife’s Lament”. In the “Seafarer” an old man who is a sailor expresses his emotions of his own life while he actually sails the sea. The man longs to seek happiness in his life but is unable to do so in a world that is controlled by fate. This poem gives the reader an image of the seafarer’s emotions to give the impression, that although life may be controlled by fate or anything else of high power, you should take life as a privilege and not take what you have in life for granted, no matter what life throws at you, good or bad. The sea showed the sailor nothing but fear, but even through the rough times the seafarer still managed to keep himself motivated. “The Wanderer”, is a man who watched his kinsman be murdered. His lord who is an old man passes away and in result leaves the wanderer in exile. The wander is very lonely and isolated after the tragedy. He left home heartbroken in the search of a new lord, but discovers later on that he is not able to find one to take the previous place. The wanderer becomes friendless, hopeless and isolates himself to full extent. But he knows that no matter how hard a man tried to hold back his emotions, he can never avoid his fate. This elegy teaches the reader that God made the world an unpredictable place with many hardships thrown into life and change the moment all the time, but everything is subject to fate. The wander advises all readers to look up to God or your lord for comfort since he is the one responsible for the fate of mankind. “The Wife’s Lament”, a women living in the Old English world is set up by her husband’s kinsman, whom are the husbands family members. The kinsman plot a place of exile for the poor women in order to get rid of her because they don’t like her. Back in the day the women did not choose who they married, it was not by choice. The kinsmen forced the husband to send his wife to a place of exile, which was under a tree in a hole. Throughout the poem the wife retains the events from her past trying to stay positive, explaining her emotions. The wife realizes the hardship that she is having to face, by being away from her husband that she is inlove with. Overall she has a passive stanima to the whole unfair situation. Due to the transistions of this poem, any reader can interprete the poem in a numerous of ways. The poem teaches the reader that the lives in Old England for the women were centered around their own lord, their duty was to serve him in order to make him happy. While all three of these poems are similar in many different ways based on exile, however they are contrasting in quit a few ways as well.
“The Seafarer” voluntarirly gives up on the worldly things in life that you should follow in a christain life style. He abandons all love; from relationships and community. “Hardship groaned around my heart.” This is used to give the reader a sense of emotions of the seafarer. Even though the seafarer is desparing because he is alone, he is glad to be out on the sea because of a loss. He actually goes out in search of a new home and a happiness. This poem is written in the envelope style, which switches back-and-forth to inside and outside speakers. “The Wanderer” has much more of a mournful mood than “The Seafarer”. The wanderer believes that God is the “our every
hope.” “The Wife’s Lament” is a different type of forced exile then “The Seafarer”, and “The Wanderer”. Back in the day the women had no choice of who they married, the man was choosen for them. In “The Wife’s Lament”, you can tell that her husbands family doesn’t like her, whom are the wife’s lord’s kinsmen. The wife is forced not by the death of her lord but by the hatefullness of the husbands family. Faced with a horrible exile, the women hoes for better days until the day she passes away, she stayed hopeful and never gave up even through the worst feeling of exile. Each of these poems share exile, but all have a different enterpration of exile themselves. While “The Seafarer” and “The Wanderer” share exile in smiliar ways due to their lord passing away, “The Wife’s Lament” is forced by her lord’s kinsmen in a very rude manner. Exile can really destroy the human body mentally.
This poem captures the immigrant experience between the two worlds, leaving the homeland and towards the new world. The poet has deliberately structured the poem in five sections each with a number of stanzas to divide the different stages of the physical voyage. Section one describes the refugees, two briefly deals with their reason for the exodus, three emphasises their former oppression, fourth section is about the healing effect of the voyage and the concluding section deals with the awakening of hope. This restructuring allows the poet to focus on the emotional and physical impact of the journey.
The Seafarer, The Wanderer, and The Wife’s Lament all contain keening in the personalized poems, in many lines. The Wanderer is a poem based on a soldier who went into exile because of the death of his dear lord. In line twenty three, a keening is shown, “gold-lord.” In this keening the soldier is looking for a great lord who will treat he as is past lord did. The Wife’s Lament is based on a wife who was forced into exile because of her husband’s family. A keening shown in line six and seven, the wife states, “wave-tumult.” The wife is explaining how her lord went through storms on the sea to get h```er to his country. Last but not least The Seafarer, another medieval based poem about a man who went back and forth on if he should have lived his family differently. In line twenty it states, “sea-fowl,” the meanin...
Although this poem was also written for commercial success, the poem was also trying to bring the publics attention to the poor law and how badly treated many young boys were at that time. It, like the novel "Oliver Twist" are both written to inform people about the disadvantages of the poor law. In this way both of the poems have the same purpose as they both contain religious and supernatural references and morals. Both poems tell stories of forgiveness and repent. Although the ancient Mariner knows he has sinned, Peter Grimes does not and thinks he is in the right, which is where the stories di... ...
Wood, Diane S. "Bradbury and Atwood: Exile as Rational Decision." The Literature of Emigration and Exile. Ed. James Whitlark and Wendall Aycock. Texas Tech University Press, 1992. 131-142. Rpt. in Novels for Students. Ed. Diane Telgen. Vol. 1. Detroit: Gale, 1998. Literature Resource Center. Web. 11 Sept. 2013. Document URL http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CH1420011359&v=2.1&u=cclc_reed&it=r&p=LitRC&sw=w
In Samuel Taylor Coleridge's poem The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, the author uses the story of a sailor and his adventures to reveal aspects of life. This tale follows the Mariner and his crew as they travel between the equator and the south pole, and then back to England. The author's use of symbolism lends the work to adults as a complex web of representation, rather than a children's book about a sailor.First, in the poem, the ship symbolizes the body of man. The ship experiences trials and tribulations just as a real person does. Its carrying the Mariner (symbolizing the individual soul) and crew shows that Coleridge saw the body as a mere vessel of the soul. This symbol of a boat is an especially powerful one, because one steers a ship to an extent, yet its fate lies in the hands of the winds and currents.Secondly, the albatross symbolizes Christ. Just as the Mariner senselessly slays the bird, man crucifies Christ whose perfection is unchallenged. Even though Christ represents mankind's one chance at achieving Heaven, man continues to persecute Him. The albatross symbolizes the sailors' one chance at deliverance from icy death and the Mariner shoots him.Thirdly, the South Pole symbolizes Hell. No visible wind blows the unfortunate crew toward the South Pole. Rather, an unseen force pulls them there. Such is the case when the world's temptations lure one to Hell. Just as the sailors approach far to close to this icy purgatory, their Redeemer, the albatross, or at least his spirit, leads them safely back in the right direction.Fourthly, in the poem England symbolizes Heaven. When the Mariner first sees his country, a great sense of hope and joy overcome him. At the point when the Mariner is about to enter Heaven, the body, symbolized by the ship, must die.
The Anglo-Saxon society was a combination of the Jutes, the Anglos, and the Saxons. It was through this combination that the values of this one culture evolved. Anglo-Saxons lived their lives according to values such as masculine orientation, transience of life, and love for glory. Contradictory to the belief that the Anglo-Saxons’ values are outdated, one will find when taking a closer look that most of the values are, in fact, still present in today’s society. Most of the literature from that time period, lasting from 449-1066, is by unknown authors. The oral tradition practiced by the Anglo-Saxons made it possible for the pieces to be passed down and still be in existence today. When many of the pieces were finally written down the took on a poetic style. Through the examination of these poems, both universal and cultural themes become present. In “The Seafarer'; and “The Wanderer,'; both being poems from the Anglo-Saxon time period, the anonymous authors portray the universal theme of the harshness of life through imagery patterns of the sea and winter, and in the conclusion of both poems it becomes evident to the subjects of the poems that the only way they will find contentment in life is if they accept the fact that the things that happen to them are all a part of God’s plan.In both poems the unknown authors use the imagery of the sea to represent the trials of life. In both, the reader must understand that the theme presented, the harshness of life, has had a specific impact on the character in the poem. They have had a personal experience that has lead them to the conclusion that this theme is relevant in everyone’s life. The opening of “The Seafarer'; proves this to be true as the very first line states “This tale is true and mine.'; This brings to the reader’s awareness that the “tale'; of the poem is an experience of the poem’s character. Immediately after that, the writer uses the imagery of the sea to illustrate the theme of the harshness of life. “It tells/ How the sea took me swept me back/ And forth in sorrows and fear and pain.'; In reading this poem it becomes obvious that life is represented by the sea. In this line the person is saying that that he has been swept away by the trials of life.
The Seafarer is about an old sailor, and the loneliness and struggle of being out at sea. The speaker uses his loneliness out at sea along with his struggles such as the cold and hunger he faces. The speaker puts emphasis on his loneliness by saying, ?my heart wanders away, my soul roams with sea?. This adds to the imagery that the sailor is attached to his life at sea, his love for sailing yet adds the isolation that comes with his life.
As the ancient Mariner described his adventures at sea to the Wedding-Guest, the Guest became saddened because he identified his own selfish ways with those of the Mariner. The mariner told the Guest that he and his ship-mates were lucky because at the beginning of their voyage they had good weather. The mariner only saw what was on the surface -- he did not see the good weather as evidence that Someone was guiding them. Also, when he shot the Albatross, the Mariner did not have any reason for doing so. The Albatross did nothing wrong, yet the Mariner thought nothing of it and without thinking of the significance of the act, he killed the bird. At this, the Guest was reminded of how self-absorbed he, too, was, and the sinful nature of man. At the beginning of the poem he was very much intent on arriving at the wedding on time. He did not care at all about what it was that the Mariner had to tell him; he did not want to be detained even if the Mariner was in trouble. Instead, he spoke rudely to the mariner, calling him a "gray-beard loon", and tried to go on his own way.
There is a great similarity between the three elegiac poems, The Wanderer, The Wife of Lament, and The Seafarer. This similarity is the theme of exile. Exile means separation, or banishment from ones native country, region, or home. During the Anglo Saxon period, exile caused a great amount of pain and grief. The theme is shown to have put great sadness into literature of this time period. The majority of the world's literature from the past contains the theme of exile. The Wife of Lament is another perfect example of literature with exile, and was written by an unknown author.
The tale of the old The seafarer was so unbelievable and supernatural, that the wedding guest and all others who hear the tale are captivated, as Coleridge. suggests, listen “like a three year old’s child” (15). Embedded through the Mariner’s tale is a story that resembles the Christianesque path. from sin to salvation. Throughout his poem, Coleridge uses the word "sea" Albatross as a Christ-like figure to illustrate the stages of the Mariner’s sin, repentance, salvation, and prose.
Exile, as from a conventional dictionary, is defined as “the state of being barred from one’s native country”. This puissant term is critically elucidated in Edward Said’s Reflections of Exile and Alison Bechdel’s Fun Home by illustrating the idea of being forcefully suppressed from orthodox nature and routine and suddenly being dispatched in unfamiliar territory. Bechdel dissects the relationship between Bruce and herself from the war of confusion and sexual thoughts that engulfs her journey through the tragicomic, while Said constructs on his own past situation as a victim of exile as well as on the stories of other deported scholars to further account the intense struggle and despair that built up the despondent passage of banishment. Hence,
Elegy can be used as a way to grieve, or a way to get past the mourning stages for a poet. In "Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude" by Ross Gay, one of the pivotal points of the book is when he writes about the death of his dad. In his poem "Burial" we see how he travels through the mourning stages and eventually comes terms with his death. The specific elements of an elegy include, speaking with the dead, grief and shock, and naming the dead. Gay specifically targets all of these components. He begins by naming not how his father died, but by stating, "out back I took the jar which has become my father's house" (pg. 11). We know that he is in the process of mourning, and now the only thing he has of his father is his ashes. Gay begins to heal after
The Seafarer: Response to Literature “The Seafarer” is an Old English poem told from the first-person point of view. In the story, the main character, an old seafarer, is reminiscing his life. He describes everything he went through and all the feelings he had on the lonely sea and the land. The themes of the story is religion, word choice, and literal view.
In the Anglo-Saxon era, exile was an essential aspect to the type of literature that was written. The word exile, in the age of the Anglo-Saxon, was an extremely feared word because it meant being barred from one’s village, which in many cases meant death. If one was barred from a village, they could not join another village or get back into their homeland because other kingdoms would not let strangers in due to their history. The exiled were stuck out in the wilderness alone with only their thoughts and the harsh climate. Not only was the word “exile” feared, it also helped the ruling king gain more power because of the constant fear of being banished from their loved ones.
Lines nine and ten of the poem enhance the reader’s thoughts of rough times like on stormy seas. It creates imagery of a ship on stormy seas for the