The+Wanderer



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 * Analysis**

This Anglo-Saxon poem written sometime before 1070A.D was part of the Exter Book, along with The Seafarer. This poem takes on an extremely mournful tone, such to the point it can be classified as an elegy. The Wanderer takes after The seafarer again again in the fact that it is a poem of solitude. The speaker, and assumable the author, of the poem tells of an attack on his people during his youth, in which many of his friends and com rads at arms were lost in battle. Now he walks the earth alone with the memories of his companions' slaughter heavy on his thoughts. He questions the actions of the day he thought all loss. They charged head on into a much larger force and all but he paid the price, so there is an am mount of guilt that burdens the man on the lonely path he walks. The poem, once again in common with The Seafarer, takes on a thematic structure. There is obvious conflict in the poem as the man relates his story. The elements of plot and storytelling also help us to decipher that it is thematic! The setting in the poem is rather undefended, to the reader images of a path, cold and broken, with an aged old man may come to mind. These pictures come about from the tone of voice and other words that seem to flow together, this along with the extremely mournful outlook from the poem, and the story-like progression create the setting. Instead of the imagery of the norm, where the physical aspects of the setting are described, a more vague use of imagery, that of the language used coupled with other literary devices paint our picture. There is much sorrow in the words. the entire poem is riddled with words pertaining to the tone of the poem: mournful.