The Seafarer Diction

“We all come from the sea, but we are not all of the sea. Those of us who are, we children of the tides, must return to it again and again, until the day we don’t come back leaving only that which was touched along the way.” This quote from the movie Chasing Mavericks perfectly captures the undying passion to return to the sea exhibited by the seafarers of the Anglo-Saxon time. In the lyrical poem The Seafarer the storyteller displays his shifting mood toward the sea and his life as a seafarer through diction, imagery, and other literary elements.
In the opening stanza of the poem the tone the author expresses is dark and suffering. This section displays the severity of living life as a seafarer and the discomfort of life at sea. The use of

assonance gives the reader a feel for being at sea. The poet tells this section with a heavy accent on the letter S which, with such repetition, gives the feeling of begin at sea and hearing the waves crashing into the boat. The use of auditory imagery gives the audience a sense of the desolation felt by seafarers. The storyteller uses various cries of birds such as, “the eagle’s screams” or “the death-noise of birds” these give a tone of hopelessness and desertion. The violence of the sea is detailed through imagery of a bitterly cold environment. The poet uses cold and negative diction in this stanza to show the extent of his suffering at sea. The repetitive negativity expresses a tone of pitiful suffering. Sentence after sentence brings the reader to a deeper sense of sorrow for the Seafarer’s life. This tone continues into the second stanza, but the author begins to discuss the reason of choosing disparity. The tone begins to become about passion and longing to return to sea. A rhetorical question, “and who could believe”, demonstrates the logical doubt in the reasons he puts himself out at sea time and time again. The author tells of how his heart begins to beat and his soul is called to explore. From the tone in this section, the reader can see how the author feels about the sea’s horror and how awful life as a seafarer can be. The tone is uncertain, hopeless, violently miserable, yet passionate in these first two stanzas.
The tone shifts from that of misery to the optimism of life on land, yet an undying passion to return to the sea.

Beginning in the third stanza, the author’s diction is much lighter as he compares his horrifying life at sea to the ease of life on land. Negative syntax combined with the positive diction reveals the life seafarers sacrifice to be isolated at sea. The author divulges the longing he has for a life on earth. The optimistic diction contradicts the dreadful diction of life at sea made clear in the first section thus lending understanding of how much passion one must have to continue to leave this life only for one of peril at sea. The use of a question, “who could understand…what we others suffer…?”, shows the author’s misunderstood longing to return to sea. The tone is ardent as the author expresses his deep felt passion and longing to return to the sea despite the danger and choice of an easier life on

land.
Beginning in the fifth stanza we see yet another shift in tone. The ocean is forgotten and the author moves in a spiritual direction. A discussion of the short lived glories of earth that man hold so dearly is seen in this section. The author takes on an informative tone as he explains that the wealth of the world is not taken into the afterlife. The use of personification of a flower goes to demonstrate the ravenous attitude of the devil directed towards earthly lives. The tone is also alarming in this section as the author list the damage that mans’ foolishness causes. The diction is very negative and distressing giving the reader a feeling of guilt and a want to repent. The author at this point is using a distressing tone to get the reader to think about the evil in the world and how man is responsible for the exaltation of earthly wealth that God is so against.
A moralizing and preachy tone is the author’s final attitude examined in The Seafarer.

The author begins in using the word “we”. This reaches out and alerts the reader to what he is about to say. This idea that we are all affected brings the readers emotions forward and makes the words on the page become a reality. This is an important idea in teaching others about morals. Also, the author uses advice to deliver his point, as he lists several biblical lessons. The author is seen reflecting on religion with a hopeful tone. The author uses praise in the last lines of the poem. This, along with the closing Amen, shows us the spiritual side and moralizing tone of the author as he concludes his

thoughts.
The Seafarer is a fast changing poem with many changes in subject and tone. The poem begins with a dark and terrorizing tone when the author is discussing the life at sea. It then evolves to a longing for a simpler life yet passionate for the thrill of the dangers among the waves. The tone is drastically changed to focus on religion and the material life humans lead that is sinful. Finally the tone becomes moralizing and preachy as it gives the reader advice and reflects on religion. Overall this poem is a complex assessment of a seafarer’s tale that ultimately leads back to God.