Sir Patrick Spens

412 Words2 Pages
In the poem “Sir Patrick Spens” the poet tells us different things about values and class structure. The first thing we notice in this poem is that the king wants the best sailor to sail his ship. By sending him this long letter he thinks it will make him want to do it in this bad weather. By him being the king he felt Sir Patrick Spens should do it regardless, he made him do it against his will. This is a demonstration of class structures; the king feels he’s above others. Also the king and his party were wearing really heavy expensive clothes so that wasn’t good for them when they were on the water. The poet writes “The king sits in Dumferling town, / Drinking the blude-red wine: / “O whar will I get guid sailor, / To sail this ship of mine?”” (Sir Patrick Spens 1-4.91). In this the poet discusses blude- red wine [blood-red] in this time blood represented power. This showed how high they were in social class. The higher you are in social class the less you care about people of the lower class. By Sir Patrick Spens being of a lower class, he was expected to do want what the king wanted regardless. Maybe if the best sailor was of a higher class such as a knight the king would have listened to him about this being the wrong time of year to sail. It seems as the king valued this trip more than anything, and Sir Patrick Spens and his crew valued respect more than their lives. The poet writes “Half o’er, half o’er to Aberdour/ It’s fifty fadom deep, /And there lies guid Sir Patrick Spens/ Wi’ the Scots lords at his feet.” (Sir Patrick Spens 41-44. 92). This refers to how the roles reverse. Even though they all died by the poet saying they were all at his feet means they now know they should have listened to him in the first place. Also they are all in the same place now it doesn’t matter who was above who as of now they are all in the same place. The poet shows
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