The Seafarer

I thought "The Seafarer" was an interesting poem, however it annoyed me in several ways.

When I first read the poem, I really wanted to know who this guy was and where he was going and why he was even on a ship. He seemed so miserable to the point that it was almost like he was forced to be there. Because of this, I thought that maybe this guy was a slave, maybe being traded across the ocean. I was also annoyed by how he was preaching about God and then went on to say in the last stanza how "We all fear God". This was so contradictory and made me really confused. After finishing the poem, I thought that maybe he fears God's greatness because there are both good and evil things on Earth but at the same time he looks up to him and admires him. He also says that, "death leaps at the fools who forget their God" so maybe he is criticizing the people of that time and maybe this was a time of questioning God. I realized that since he was talking so much about Christianity, I knew that it couldn't have been written in the same time as Beowulf because Beowulf was written during Pagan times.

But seriously, what is this poem about? Our discussion about it in class helped me a lot. It still bugs me that it's an anonymous poem. I know there was no possible way to know the actual guy who wrote this but I just wish that we knew something about him, like what was going on in his society when he wrote this? You can tell this is an Anglo-Saxon poem because it has tons of alliteration and follows the same style format, however it is not as strict as Beowulf. (Nothing is). I can also see the Anglo-Saxon style from how the guy talks about his kinsman and how while on the sea, he lacks that companionship. I liked how we talked about how important honor was for them and how it is lost in our generation. I understand that honor was really important to them, but I think that our society has gotten a lot more independent and we are more 'every man for himself'. I like that because I'm a really independent person and I feel that if I lived in an Anglo-Saxon society, I would be really annoyed because I hate depending on other people.

This was definitely a poem of mourning. You can tell from the several references to winter (ice cold, icy bands, frozen chains, freezing waves, icicles) and how he complained of his 'sea-weary' soul. But what is he mourning? He definitely feels trapped. This could be because he is on the sea, therefor he is not around his kin and he is lonely. However, why does he do it if he's so miserable? He says that, "[He] puts [himself] back on the paths of the sea". Why? Is he doing it for the good of someone else? Is it his job? Is it his responsibility and duty? Or is this guy just really unhappy and cannot make up his mind? Or is this just his fate? I still don't know but I thought this was really cool to read, especially after Beowulf. I thought they were totally different, however they still kind of had the same theme of fate and a person's purpose.