Isolation In The Seafarer

The three medieval poems, The Seafarer, The Wanderer, and The Wife’s Lament, include many similarities and differences. All of the three medieval poems uses exile/isolation, elements of the story, usage of imagery/sensory, and sound devices. First of all, the theme of exile/isolation is there for all works of the three medieval poems. All characters are alone by themselves. In lines 25-26 of The Seafarer, he is alone and helpless, “No kinsman could offer comfort there, to a soul left drowning in desolation” (S 25-26). In The Wanderer, the character is alone because all of his friends have died. In lines 10-11 of The Wanderer, he says, “No man is living, no comrade left, To whom I dare fully unlock my heart” (W 10-11). He also uses the words

The Seafarer has a consonance sound of the “s” sound, which represents the sea. He uses words like “sea”(S 2), “ships”(S 4), “smashing surf”(S 6), “hailstorms”(S 17) “Sword, snatching, soul” (S 71), “soul stripped”(S 94) throughout the story. One the other hand, The Wanderer has a consonance sound of the “d”, “g”, and “t” sound. Words such as “toiling, wintry” (W 3), “day, dawning” (W 8), “gifts, gold” (W 29) are used throughout The Wanderer to create a hard sound. Next, The Wife’s Lament uses alliteration of “s”, “m” sounds, assonance of “o”, “e” sounds, consonance of the “r”, “d” sounds, and repetition of “h” sounds. The alliteration of the “s” and “m” sounds represents her sorrow. She uses words like “seek service, sorrow’s” (WL 10) and “mournful, mind, mood, murder” (WL 19-20) near the beginning of the poem, because she is devastated that her husband left her. The assonance of “o” and “e” represents her tone of trying to move on. It comes from words like “overgrown” (WL 31), “weep” (WL 38), “oak tree” (WL 36), “vowed” (WL 21) near the middle of the poem. The sound of “h”, “r”, and “d” gives this poem a more hateful and negative tone, because it represents her anger. Words like “hard his heart’s” (WL 43), “bitter with briars” (WL 31), “rocky, rimed” (WL 48), and “dreary, drenched” (WL 49) are used near the end of The Wife’s Lament to show her anger towards her