Reflections of Common Life

READING 3 Evaluate the changes

in sound, form, figurative
language, and dramatic structure
in poetry across literary time
periods. 7 Analyze how patterns
of imagery reveal theme, set
tone, and create meaning. RC12(A) Reflect on understanding to
monitor comprehension.

The Seafarer
The Wanderer
The Wifes Lament
Poetry from the Exeter Book

Meet the Author

The Exeter Book

c. 950

first bishop of Exeter. He donated it to

the Exeter Cathedral library sometime
between 1050 and 1072. For several
centuries the book was neglected and
abused; few people were able to read the
Old English language in which it was
written and thus had little use for it. Some
pages are badly stained or scorched. The
original binding and an unknown number
of pages are lost.

did you know?

The Exeter Book . . .

consists of 131 leaves of

parchment, each slightly
bigger than a standard
sheet of paper.
has knife cuts on some
of its pages, which
suggests that at one
point it was used as a
cutting board.
inspired the building of
a 19-foot-high stainlesssteel statue imprinted
with riddles in the city
of Exeter.

Rediscovery With the rise of Anglo-Saxon

Nothing is known about the authors of

The Seafarer, The Wanderer, and
The Wifes Lament. All three poems
survive in the Exeter Book, a manuscript of
Anglo-Saxon poems produced by a single
scribe around a.d. 950. In addition to
these and other secular poems, the Exeter
Book contains religious verse, nearly 100
riddles, and a heroic narrative. It is the
largest collection of Old English poetry in
existence.
Neglected Treasure Originally, the Exeter
Book belonged to Leofric (lAPE-frGk), the

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studies in the 19th century, scholars

began to take an interest in the Exeter
Book. Benjamin Thorpe published the
first complete translation in 1842. He
assigned titles to The Seafarer and The
Wanderer, as none of the poems in the
manuscript had titles. A photographic
facsimile was published in 1933; it became
the basis for later scholarly editions. A CD
version, with facsimile pages and audio
readings, was released in 2006.
The original manuscript still resides at
the library at Exeter Cathedral, where it
is cherished as one of the few surviving
collections of Anglo-Saxon poetry.

literary analysis: imagery

Poets communicate through imagery, words and phrases that
re-create sensory experiences for the reader by appealing to
one or more of the five senses. Notice how the imagery in this
passage from The Seafarer appeals to the senses of sight,
touch, and hearing:
My feet were cast
In icy bands, bound with frost,
With frozen chains, and hardship groaned
Around my heart.
The images bring to mind coldness and confinement and
suggest the speakers lonely, painful emotional state. As you
read the following three poems, pay attention to the imagery,
allowing it to evoke ideas and feelings in you.
Review: Old English Poetry

reading strategy: monitor your understanding

These poems have been translated from Old English into
Modern English, but sections of the texts may still be hard to
understand. Use the following strategies to understand them:
Visualize the many images layered in the poems.
Question as you read. Ask who the speaker is, for example.
Reread passages that are confusing.
Paraphrase difficult lines, restating them in your own words.
Clarify events. The speakers remember past experiences and
reflect on their present experiences. Let indentations and
stanza breaks alert you that the speaker is turning to a new
thought.
For each poem, create a chart to record what the speaker
remembers or ponders in each section of the poem to help
clarify events the speaker describes.
The Seafarer

Section
Section 1 (lines 126)

Speaker Remembers or Ponders

being cold, hungry, and lonely on
the sea

When are
people most

alone?

When people find themselves cut off

from contact with others, the sense of
isolation can be all consuming. It is not
surprising that loneliness is a frequent
topic in poetry written during the
Anglo-Saxon eraan era during which
disease, war, and other perils often
wrenched people away from their loved
ones. In many Anglo-Saxon poems,
images of freezing seas and jagged
cliffs mirror this sense of isolation
and the challenge of living in a harsh,
unpredictable world.
QUICKWRITE Imagine that you are
making a five-minute silent film about
isolation and loneliness. What would
you show onscreen? Where would you
set the film? Who would the main
character be, and what would he or she
be doing? List some visual images that
come to mind.

Film Images

single robed traveler,

trudging across the Sahara
Desert

endless sand dunes

Section 2

Complete the activities in your Reader/Writer Notebook.

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The Seafarer

Play Audio

background The poems in the Exeter Book reflect the hardship and
uncertainty of life in Anglo-Saxon times. Men who made their living on the sea
had to leave behind their families and sail long distances in primitive, poorly
equipped boats. The women and children left behind endured months and
even years without knowing whether their menfolk would return. In addition,
frequent outbreaks of disease and war scattered communities and brought
untimely death to many people.

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This tale is true, and mine. It tells

How the sea took me, swept me back
And forth in sorrow and fear and pain,
Showed me suffering in a hundred ships,
In a thousand ports, and in me. It tells
Of smashing surf when I sweated in the cold
Of an anxious watch, perched in the bow
As it dashed under cliffs. My feet were cast
In icy bands, bound with frost,
With frozen chains, and hardship groaned
Around my heart. Hunger tore
At my sea-weary soul. No man sheltered
On the quiet fairness of earth can feel
How wretched I was, drifting through winter
On an ice-cold sea, whirled in sorrow,
Alone in a world blown clear of love,
Hung with icicles. The hailstorms flew.
The only sound was the roaring sea,
The freezing waves. The song of the swan
Might serve for pleasure, the cry of the sea-fowl,
The death-noise of birds instead of laughter,
The mewing of gulls instead of mead.
Storms beat on the rocky cliffs and were echoed

unit 1: the anglo-saxon and medieval periods

Language Coach
Etymology A words etymology,
or origin, can help you understand
its connotationsthe images or
feelings connected with a word.
Wretched, which comes from the
Old English wrecca (outcast or
exile), means miserable. Why
is wretched a better word than
miserable in lines 1217?

22 mead (mCd): an alcoholic beverage

drunk at Anglo-Saxon gatherings.

Analyze Visuals
Describe the mood of this
photograph as well as
those on pages 109 and
113. What features of each
landscape determine
its mood?

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By icy-feathered terns and the eagles screams;

No kinsman could offer comfort there,
To a soul left drowning in desolation. a
And who could believe, knowing but
The passion of cities, swelled proud with wine
And no taste of misfortune, how often, how wearily,
I put myself back on the paths of the sea.
Night would blacken; it would snow from the north;
Frost bound the earth and hail would fall,
The coldest seeds. And how my heart
Would begin to beat, knowing once more
The salt waves tossing and the towering sea!
The time for journeys would come and my soul
Called me eagerly out, sent me over
The horizon, seeking foreigners homes.
But there isnt a man on earth so proud,
So born to greatness, so bold with his youth,
Grown so brave, or so graced by God,
That he feels no fear as the sails unfurl,
Wondering what Fate has willed and will do.
No harps ring in his heart, no rewards,

24 terns: sea birds similar to gulls.

a IMAGERY

In lines 1226, what senses does the

imagery appeal to? Describe the
mood created by the imagery.

the seafarer

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No passion for women, no worldly pleasures,

Nothing, only the oceans heave;
But longing wraps itself around him.
Orchards blossom, the towns bloom,
Fields grow lovely as the world springs fresh,
And all these admonish that willing mind
Leaping to journeys, always set
In thoughts traveling on a quickening tide.
So summers sentinel, the cuckoo, sings
In his murmuring voice, and our hearts mourn
As he urges. Who could understand,
In ignorant ease, what we others suffer
As the paths of exile stretch endlessly on? b
And yet my heart wanders away,
My soul roams with the sea, the whales
Home, wandering to the widest corners
Of the world, returning ravenous with desire,
Flying solitary, screaming, exciting me
To the open ocean, breaking oaths
On the curve of a wave.
Thus the joys of God c
Are fervent with life, where life itself
Fades quickly into the earth. The wealth
Of the world neither reaches to Heaven nor remains.
No man has ever faced the dawn
Certain which of Fates three threats
Would fall: illness, or age, or an enemys
Sword, snatching the life from his soul.
The praise the living pour on the dead
Flowers from reputation: plant
An earthly life of profit reaped
Even from hatred and rancor, of bravery
Flung in the devils face, and death
Can only bring you earthly praise
And a song to celebrate a place
With the angels, life eternally blessed
In the hosts of Heaven.
The days are gone
When the kingdoms of earth flourished in glory;
Now there are no rulers, no emperors,
No givers of gold, as once there were,
When wonderful things were worked among them
And they lived in lordly magnificence.
Those powers have vanished, those pleasures are dead,
The weakest survives and the world continues,
Kept spinning by toil. All glory is tarnished,

unit 1: the anglo-saxon and medieval periods

50 admonish (Bd-mJnPGsh): criticize or

caution.

53 summers sentinel (sDnPtE-nEl), the

cuckoo: summers guard or watchman.
The cries of cuckoos are common in
Europe in summer, but in autumn the
birds migrate south.

b imagery

Note how the images in lines

4457 contrast with the images of
the sea. How is the speaker affected
by thoughts of life on land?

mONiTOr
Notice the break at line 64. Here
the speaker turns to a new idea.
How do you interpret the sentence
beginning Thus the joys of God . . .?

80 hosts of Heaven: bands of angels.

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The worlds honor ages and shrinks,

Bent like the men who mold it. Their faces
Blanch as time advances, their beards
Wither and they mourn the memory of friends,
The sons of princes, sown in the dust.
The soul stripped of its flesh knows nothing
Of sweetness or sour, feels no pain,
Bends neither its hand nor its brain. A brother
Opens his palms and pours down gold
On his kinsmans grave, strewing his coffin
With treasures intended for Heaven, but nothing
Golden shakes the wrath of God
For a soul overflowing with sin, and nothing
Hidden on earth rises to Heaven. d
We all fear God. He turns the earth,
He set it swinging firmly in space,
Gave life to the world and light to the sky.
Death leaps at the fools who forget their God.
He who lives humbly has angels from Heaven
To carry him courage and strength and belief.
A man must conquer pride, not kill it,
Be firm with his fellows, chaste for himself,
Treat all the world as the world deserves,
With love or with hate but never with harm,
Though an enemy seek to scorch him in hell,
Or set the flames of a funeral pyre
Under his lord. Fate is stronger
And God mightier than any mans mind.
Our thoughts should turn to where our home is,
Consider the ways of coming there,
Then strive for sure permission for us
To rise to that eternal joy,
That life born in the love of God
And the hope of Heaven. Praise the Holy e
Grace of Him who honored us,
Eternal, unchanging creator of earth. Amen.

d MONITOR

Visualize the images of the world

in lines 80102. What main idea do
they convey?

110 chaste (chAst): pure in thought and

deed.

114 funeral pyre (pFr): a bonfire for

burning a corpse.

MONITOR
Paraphrase the advice the speaker
gives in lines 117122. Where is our
home?

Translated by Burton Raffel

Literary Analysis
1. Paraphrase What views does the speaker express about
earthly life and God in lines 64124 ?
2. Compare How does the last half of the poem (from line
64 on) relate to the first half of the poem?

the seafarer

107

The anderer
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108

This lonely traveler longs for grace,

For the mercy of God; grief hangs on
His heart and follows the frost-cold foam
He cuts in the sea, sailing endlessly,
Aimlessly, in exile. Fate has opened
A single port: memory. He sees
His kinsmen slaughtered again, and cries:
Ive drunk too many lonely dawns,
Grey with mourning. Once there were men
To whom my heart could hurry, hot
With open longing. Theyre long since dead.
My heart has closed on itself, quietly
Learning that silence is noble and sorrow
Nothing that speech can cure. Sadness
Has never driven sadness off;
Fate blows hardest on a bleeding heart.
So those who thirst for glory smother
Secret weakness and longing, neither
Weep nor sigh nor listen to the sickness
In their souls. So I, lost and homeless,
Forced to flee the darkness that fell
On the earth and my lord. f
Leaving everything,
Weary with winter I wandered out
On the frozen waves, hoping to find
A place, a people, a lord to replace
My lost ones. No one knew me, now,
No one offered comfort, allowed
Me feasting or joy. How cruel a journey
Ive traveled, sharing my bread with sorrow
Alone, an exile in every land,
Could only be told by telling my footsteps.
For who can hear: friendless and poor,
And know what Ive known since the long cheerful nights
When, young and yearning, with my lord I yet feasted
Most welcome of all. That warmth is dead.
He only knows who needs his lord
As I do, eager for long-missing aid;
He only knows who never sleeps

unit 1: the anglo-saxon and medieval periods

Play Audio

Language Coach
Roots and Affixes Added to an
adjective, the suffix -ly forms an
adverb (like endlessly or aimlessly,
lines 45). Added to a noun, -ly
means relating to and forms an
adjective. How is the suffix used in
ghostly and worldly (lines 7172)?

MONITOR
What has happened to the speaker,
and what is his state of mind?

31 telling: counting.

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Without the deepest dreams of longing.

Sometimes it seems I see my lord,
Kiss and embrace him, bend my hands
And head to his knee, kneeling as though
He still sat enthroned, ruling his thanes.
And I open my eyes, embracing the air,
And see the brown sea-billows heave,
See the sea-birds bathe, spreading
Their white-feathered wings, watch the frost
And the hail and the snow. And heavy in heart
I long for my lord, alone and unloved.
Sometimes it seems I see my kin
And greet them gladly, give them welcome,
The best of friends. They fade away,
Swimming soundlessly out of sight,
Leaving nothing. g
How loathsome become
The frozen waves to a weary heart.
In this brief world I cannot wonder
That my mind is set on melancholy,
Because I never forget the fate
Of men, robbed of their riches, suddenly
Looted by deaththe doom of earth,
Sent to us all by every rising
Sun. Wisdom is slow, and comes
But late. He who has it is patient;
He cannot be hasty to hate or speak,
He must be bold and yet not blind,
Nor ever too craven, complacent, or covetous,
Nor ready to gloat before he wins glory.
The mans a fool who flings his boasts
Hotly to the heavens, heeding his spleen
And not the better boldness of knowledge.
What knowing man knows not the ghostly,
Waste-like end of worldly wealth:
See, already the wreckage is there,
The wind-swept walls stand far and wide,
The storm-beaten blocks besmeared with frost,
The mead-halls crumbled, the monarchs thrown down
And stripped of their pleasures. The proudest of warriors
Now lie by the wall: some of them war
Destroyed; some the monstrous sea-bird
Bore over the ocean; to some the old wolf
Dealt out death; and for some dejected
Followers fashioned an earth-cave coffin.
Thus the Maker of men lays waste

unit 1: the anglo-saxon and medieval periods

43 thanes (thAnz): followers of a lord.

g imagery

In what way do the images from

the speakers past contrast with the
images of the present?

69 spleen: bad temper. The spleen is a

body organ that was formerly thought to
be the seat of strong emotions.

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This earth, crushing our callow mirth.

And the work of old giants stands withered and still.

84 callow (kBlPI) mirth: childish joy.

h imagery

What ideas about earthly life do you

get from the images in lines 7485?
Note that work of old giants refers
to old ruins and burial mounds.

He who these ruins rightly sees,

And deeply considers this dark twisted life,
Who sagely remembers the endless slaughters
Of a bloody past, is bound to proclaim:
Where is the war-steed? Where is the warrior?
Where is his war-lord?
Where now the feasting-places? Where now the mead-hall
pleasures?
Alas, bright cup! Alas, brave knight!
Alas, you glorious princes! All gone,
Lost in the night, as you never had lived.
And all that survives you a serpentine wall,
Wondrously high, worked in strange ways.
Mighty spears have slain these men,
Greedy weapons have framed their fate.
These rocky slopes are beaten by storms,
This earth pinned down by driving snow,
By the horror of winter, smothering warmth
In the shadows of night. And the north angrily
Hurls its hailstorms at our helpless heads.
Everything earthly is evilly born,
Firmly clutched by a fickle Fate.
Fortune vanishes, friendship vanishes,
Man is fleeting, woman is fleeting,
And all this earth rolls into emptiness.
So says the sage in his heart, sitting alone with His
thought.
Its good to guard your faith, nor let your grief come forth
Until it cannot call for help, nor help but heed
The path youve placed before it. Its good to find your grace
In God, the heavenly rock where rests our every hope. i

95 serpentine (srPpEn-tCnQ): winding or

twisting, like a snake.

mONiTOr
Reread lines 110113. Is the wanderer
speaking, or is someone else? What
advice is offered in these lines?

Translated by Burton Raffel

Literary Analysis
1. Compare How does the wanderers present life
compare with his former life?
2. Summarize What does a wise man understand,
according to the wanderer?

the wanderer

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The ifes ament

Play Audio

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I make this song about me full sadly

my own wayfaring. I a woman tell
what griefs I had since I grew up
new or old never more than now.
Ever I know the dark of my exile.

First my lord went out away from his people

over the wave-tumult. I grieved each dawn
wondered where my lord my first on earth might be.
Then I went forth a friendless exile
to seek service in my sorrows need.
My mans kinsmen began to plot
by darkened thought to divide us two
so we most widely in the worlds kingdom
lived wretchedly and I suffered longing.
My lord commanded me to move my dwelling here.
I had few loved ones in this land
or faithful friends. For this my heart grieves:
that I should find the man well matched to me
hard of fortune mournful of mind
hiding his mood thinking of murder. k
Blithe was our bearing often we vowed
that but death alone would part us two
naught else. But this is turned round
now . . . as if it never were
our friendship. I must far and near
bear the anger of my beloved.
The man sent me out to live in the woods

unit 1: the anglo-saxon and medieval periods

OLD ENGLISH POETRY

The translator has divided each
line with a caesura, or pause,
which helps maintain the rhythm
of the line. What do the pauses
emphasize?
6 my lord: the speakers husband.
7 wave-tumult: a kenning, or compound
metaphoric expression, for the sea.

Language Coach
Multiple Meanings Service (line
10) can mean help or the job of
a servant, among other things.
One obsolete meaning is a pledge
of love. How do these different
meanings affect your interpretation
of the events in lines 1114?

k MONITOR

Why is the wife in exile?

under an oak tree in this den in the earth.

Ancient this earth hall. I am all longing.
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The valleys are dark the hills high

the yard overgrown bitter with briars
a joyless dwelling. Full oft the lack of my lord
seizes me cruelly here. Friends there are on earth
living beloved lying in bed
while I at dawn am walking alone
under the oak tree through these earth halls.
There I may sit the summerlong day
there I can weep over my exile
my many hardships. Hence I may not rest
from this care of heart which belongs to me ever
nor all this longing that has caught me in this life.

2829 den . . . earth hall: In describing

her living quarters, the speaker uses an
expression something like the modern
hole in the ground.

May that young man be sad-minded always

hard his hearts thought while he must wear
a blithe bearing with care in the breast
a crowd of sorrows. May on himself depend
all his worlds joy. Be he outlawed far
in a strange folk-land that my beloved sits
under a rocky cliff rimed with frost
a lord dreary in spirit drenched with water
in a ruined hall. My lord endures
much care of mind. He remembers too often
a happier dwelling. Woe be to them
that for a loved one must wait in longing. m
Translated by Ann Stanford

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unit 1: the anglo-saxon and medieval periods

imagery
What does the speakers description
of her surroundings express about
her emotional state?
42 that young man: the speakers
husband. In these final lines, the speaker
seems to wish for her husband to lead
the same sort of life that he has forced
her to endure.

m imagery

What sad images does the speaker

imagine in lines 4250?

After Reading

Comprehension
1. Recall How does the speaker in The Seafarer feel about life at sea?
2. Clarify Why is the title character in The Wanderer in exile?
3. Clarify In The Wifes Lament, what does the wife wish for her husband?

Literary Analysis

READING 3 Evaluate the changes in

sound, form, figurative language, and
dramatic structure in poetry across
literary time periods. 7 Analyze how
patterns of imagery reveal theme,
set tone, and create meaning. RC12(A) Reflect on understanding to
monitor comprehension.

4. Monitor Understanding Review the charts you made as you read. What is
the speaker remembering or pondering in each poem? What elements in
each poem helped you reach these conclusions?
5. Compare Texts Compare these three poems, noting similarities you see in
each of the following elements:
subject

mood

imagery

theme

6. Synthesize Ideas What ideas about Anglo-Saxon life and religious attitudes
do you get from the poems?
7. Evaluate Imagery How does the imagery in these poems reflect the passage
of time? Support your answer with details from the poems.
8. Apply Themes What advice might the speakers of The Seafarer and The
Wanderer give the speaker of The Wifes Lament? In what circumstances
could modern people benefit from this advice?

Literary Criticism
9. Critical Interpretations There has been much debate over the number
of speakers in The Seafarer. Some critics believe that a second person
begins to speak at line 64, and others believe that there is only one speaker
throughout the poem. Which interpretation do you believe is more accurate,
and why?

When are people most

alone ?

A cold, stony landscape mirrors the harsh, unpredictable lives of the

AngloSaxons. What other kinds of landscapes might evoke a feeling of
isolation or loneliness?

the seafarer / the wanderer / the wifes lament

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