"The Wanderer"

As the lyric poem opens, the Wanderer finds himself on the wide, open sea.  He is alone ("no comrade left"), and sad ("in wretchedness"). His tribe, it seems, has been destroyed a long time ago since his lord was buried ("the dark earth covered my dear lord's face") in "days of old."  Since that time the speaker has been searching for another "gold-lord" (i.e., lord who gives gold: the king) and tribe to which to belong.

The persona's sense of loss and feelings of loneliness are intensified by his dreaming of "the old days" as he catnaps on the boat. As he dozes, he imagines clasping "his dear lord again," and "the hall-men,/ the dealing of treasure, the days of his youth" and then is harshly awakened by the cruel "tossing sea." The description of the warmth and comfort of his being with friends and family contrasts with the loneliness of the "gray stretches of the tossing sea" and the company of the sea-birds. This  juxtaposition has an overwhelming effect on the Wanderer as "his grief is renewed."

His isolation in the boat gives the speaker plenty of time to think. He considers how "One by one proud warriors vanish/ From the halls that knew them, and day by day/ All this earth ages and drops unto death." This clearly underscores the theme that has been present since the beginning of the poem: transience.

As hail "from the north" falls on his world, the speaker realizes: "Here [on earth] wealth is fleeting, friends are fleeting,/ Man is fleeting, maid is fleeting;/ All the foundation of the earth shall fall." While the earthly world is temporary and painful, the speaker states that people can receive mercy and strength happiness from a "heavenly Father."

Whether there is one persona (the wanderer eventually learns wisdom after "many a winter") or two personae (the wanderer who can't accept change and the wise man who has learned to adapt), the point of the poem is the same. Regardless of the difficulties we find in this world, we need to remember that our place is with our "heavenly Father" in eternity.

Last revised: September 14, 2005