The Seafarer is an old English poem that tells of a man’s journey and life on the sea. He laments his hardships on an icy sea and ponders his life on the sea compared to those on land. The poem also delves into God and spirituality where the old seafarer asserts that men should fear the power of God and that one should strive to be eternally blessed in the kingdom of heaven. The poem is one of four remaining manuscripts of old English poetry remaining in the world. While its premise is relatively simple, the poem is filled to the brim with figurative language. Through its figurative language, the poem can achieve many different meanings at the discretion of the reader, and it can be debated on what the allegorical section (The Seafarer lines 1-65), dealing with the sea, means. However, the most likely meaning is that the allegorical section represents a cornerstone of the Christian faith, which is the journey to find God. This journey or pilgrimage is conveyed through the use of literary devices in the first…show more content… In addition to the sea itself, the Seafarer’s emotional shortcomings on the sea create an intense sense of loneliness and foreboding in the first sixty-five lines of the poem. This section is widely considered an allegory for the life of the seafarer as he struggles to find God. The author uses the metaphor of the sea to illustrate the Christian belief that God will test one's faith through adversity. Furthermore, the use of cold weather imagery creates a tone of loneliness and exile, which is a major player in the Old Testament when Adam and his descendants are exiled from the Garden of Eden. For these reasons, the allegorical section of the Seafarer represents the Christian’s journey through life to find God and be, “eternally blessed.” (line 80) in
