"The Seafarer," "The Wife's
Lament," and "The Wanderer" all deal with sorrow, loss, and solitude. The
speakers of all three of these poems are alone and have been for quite some time. They also all
provide opinions as to what a good, wise man must be; perhaps the speakers are left with plenty
of time to ponder such matters after the world has abandoned them. In order to identify the
values taught by these poems, let us consider some passages from each:
Every man must keep himself with moderation . . .
Outcomes
are stronger
. . . than the thoughts of any man . . .
Life pertains to the
love of the Lord ("The Seafarer," lines 111, 115€“6, 121)A young
man must always be sad at heart . . .
May he depend only upon himself . .
.
May he be stained with guilt ("The Wife's Lament," lines 42, 45b,
47)A good man who keeps his troth
ought never to manifest his
miseries . . .
It will be well for him who seeks the favor
. . . from our
father in heaven ("The Wanderer," lines 112-113, 1114b-115)
Within each of these collections of lines, and elsewhere in the
poems, we can see three common themes emerge: stoicism in the face
of pain, self-discipline in the absence of external guidance, and faith in
God and Heaven. (See the full texts linked below to read the full stanzas' elaboration on these
concepts.) Stoicism is the term we can give to the idea that while all of these people
experience sorrow perpetually, they put on a brave face to survive through it, and believe
others must as well. Self-discipline is a quality that must be important to the speakers, as
they have each been relying on themselves all the while and thus value the importance of being
able to trust themselves to think and act properly through solitary self-monitoring. Lastly,
faith and religious undertones (or, in some cases, overtones) are woven through the poems, with
a joyous and pious afterlife presented as the ultimate objective, one which can be worked toward
through living by the other two values.
No comments:
Post a Comment