&Quot;The Wanderer&Quot; And &Quot;The Seafarer&Quot; Essay

Poems of lament, exile and terror were always themes of Anglo-Saxon British literature. "The Wanderer', translated by Charles Kennedy, and "The Seafarer" translated by Burton Raffel, are examples of this theme of depression and fear. Both these old English poems reflect the grief of losing the pagan times. They show terror and loneliness of being exiled and how the Christian phase was pushing though. The men in both poems are isolated on the wintry sea, contemplating their situation, isolation and loss of times. They wonderabout the sea and life, while secluded and exiled. The elegiac poems relate to one another through theme and tone. While these poems may be depressing, they are reflecting the feeling of the Anglo-Saxon time and era. The poems mirror one another through the feeling of terror and depression while being exiled or isolated on a ship in the cold winter. They show the fear that the two sailors have. In "The Wandered", the sailor is exiled to the sea, and he is alone and sacred. He says: Oft to the wanderer, weary of exile, Cometh Gods pity, Compassionate love, Through woefully toiling, on wintry seas With churning oar in icy wave, Homelss and helpless he fled from fate. (Kennedy 1-5) The man expresses here that he is out on the cold sea all by himself. The same idea is portraied the poem "The Seafarer".A man is forced out of his home land to the wintery sea by fate and exile. The poem reads: It tells How the sea took me, and swept me back And ferth in sorrow and fear and pain... (Raffel 1-3) Both these men are frightened and alone. They were forced out by the incoming impact of the new Christian era. The pagan times that the men loved were pushed back and forgotten. They are mourning the loss of the old times and fear the new. Therefore being exiled and pushed out of their homelands. As the men are depressed and scared, they are remembering the 'old times' of paganism. The seafarer is in great grief due to the fact that his beliefs have been pushed...