Elegies
Victoria Dozier
Ms. Spradlin
September 25, 2013
The authors of each poem take us on complex journeys into the troubling lives of different characters. Somewhere throughout each poem, the authors create beauty out of a painful experience. Each of these elegies portrays a theme of exile, which causes us to feel to a certain extent of each character’s lament. In “The Seafarer”, the subject being lamented is him being at sea by himself, alone in the middle of nowhere. In this elegy, it seemed as if he was lost within in sea and also lost within himself, of what he truly feels. For example he says, “The sea took me, swept me back and forth in sorrow, suffering in one hundred ships.” Sweeping him back and forth in sorrow shows that he is lost; he does not know what to do, or where to go. He is lost in the waves and the various sounds around him. All of the sounds of the waves crashing and birds cawing brings him closer to the reality that he is definitely alone. Yet, with all this sorrow and pain, he explains it is still a moment of beauty left in his journey. The seafarer says, “The passion of cities swelled proud with wine and no taste of misfortune how wearingly, I put myself back on sea.” Meaning, he knows that he can have a great time with everybody else who is still on land, not having any unfortunate things happen to him, but instead, he would rather spend his time on sea. Regardless of the difficulties he has, something positive inside of him guides him right back to it. The Wife’s Lament speaks to us readers on a more romantic note. She feels exiled by her lover because he has moved far, far away from her, even though they were supposed to be together “forever”. The wife explains, “I had few loved ones in this land or faithful friends, for this my heart grieves.” According to this quote, it is already hard enough that she barely has any family or hardly any friends, now she has no lover by her side. She further explains, “I am all longing”, missing
Ms. Spradlin
September 25, 2013
The authors of each poem take us on complex journeys into the troubling lives of different characters. Somewhere throughout each poem, the authors create beauty out of a painful experience. Each of these elegies portrays a theme of exile, which causes us to feel to a certain extent of each character’s lament. In “The Seafarer”, the subject being lamented is him being at sea by himself, alone in the middle of nowhere. In this elegy, it seemed as if he was lost within in sea and also lost within himself, of what he truly feels. For example he says, “The sea took me, swept me back and forth in sorrow, suffering in one hundred ships.” Sweeping him back and forth in sorrow shows that he is lost; he does not know what to do, or where to go. He is lost in the waves and the various sounds around him. All of the sounds of the waves crashing and birds cawing brings him closer to the reality that he is definitely alone. Yet, with all this sorrow and pain, he explains it is still a moment of beauty left in his journey. The seafarer says, “The passion of cities swelled proud with wine and no taste of misfortune how wearingly, I put myself back on sea.” Meaning, he knows that he can have a great time with everybody else who is still on land, not having any unfortunate things happen to him, but instead, he would rather spend his time on sea. Regardless of the difficulties he has, something positive inside of him guides him right back to it. The Wife’s Lament speaks to us readers on a more romantic note. She feels exiled by her lover because he has moved far, far away from her, even though they were supposed to be together “forever”. The wife explains, “I had few loved ones in this land or faithful friends, for this my heart grieves.” According to this quote, it is already hard enough that she barely has any family or hardly any friends, now she has no lover by her side. She further explains, “I am all longing”, missing