"The Wanderer"

English 203

Dr. Fike

Key terms:

• elegiac consolatio
• ethopoeia
• ubi sunt

Related reading:

• "Deor"
• "The Seafarer"
• Boethius, The Consolation of Philosophy
• Fike, "'The Wanderer' and the Psychology of Sailing" (on electronic reserve)

Questions:

1. What is the dramatic situation in the poem?  What actions are described?

2. The poem's title was added by a modern editor named Benjamin Thorpe.  If it were not called "The Wanderer," what other titles might be suitable?

3.  Do you find elements of old heroism in the poem's dramatic situation? 
   1. Comitatus? 
   2.  Is there a problem?  See Proverbs 29:11:  "A fool gives full vent to his anger, / but a wise man quietly holds it back."

4. Outline the poem.  What sections emerge?

5. Because there was no punctuation in the original, it is extremely difficult to tell who is speaking.  What you see in your book is a modern editor's interpretation.  How many speakers do you think there are in the poem?  Who might they be?
   1. One speaker:
   2. Two speakers:
   3. Three speakers:

6. Regarding attitudes toward life's hard knocks, what alternatives do we find in this poem?
   1. First,
   2. Second,
   3. Third,

7. What images of transience do you find in the poem?
   1. "Dream sequence":
   2. Ubi sunt passage: