The Seafarer Rhetorical Analysis

415 Words1 Page

Sea of Despair In Raffel’s translated version of “The Seafarer”, the speaker is recalling and dwelling on the hardships of his life, which leads to harmful outcomes. Although some may argue that a person can gain wisdom from dwelling on the sorrowful side of life, a pessimistic attitude is more likely to leave a negative impact. From the beginning, the sailor in “The Seafarer” gives the reader a sense of how hopeless he really is: “Sorrow and fear and pain,/Showed me suffering in a hundred ships” (“The Seafarer” 3-4). The despair continues throughout the poem: “No kinsman could offer comfort there,/To a soul left drowning in desolation” (“The Seafarer” 25-26). The soul mentioned is depressed over the loss of something. It is not clear whom or what the soul is mourning over, but it can be assumed that he has lost a loved one, or perhaps his home, due to him being a sailor and …show more content…

The speaker states that “No kinsman could offer comfort”, meaning that there was not a man that could cheer up the saddened soul. With the man being too caught up in thinking about how painful his life is, he was disabling himself any chance of cheering up. He was only causing more damage to his soul by focusing on the negatives instead of the positives. Later in the poem, the speaker portrays the arrival of summer and how the crew views the new season by saying, “So summer’s sentinel, the cuckoo, sings/In his murmuring voice, and our hearts mourn/As he urges” (“The Seafarer” 53-55). The sunny season of summer is generally associated with the feelings of happiness and sentiment. However, to the speaker and the others sailors occupying the ship, summer is just as bad as the previous seasons of winter and spring, if not worse. The bird is trying to cheer up the members of the ship by singing his delightful tune, but the crew would rather mourn instead of be grateful for the season that does not

Open Document