Seafarer as an allegory :

An allegory is a figurative narrative or description either in prose or in verse that conveys a veiled moral meaning.

The seafarer is an old English poem of 124 lines The seafarer is an old English poem of 124 lines. It is also called an Anglo- Saxon elegy. The critics of are of different opinions about its structures & themes.

Some critics observe the first part of the poem up to 63 lines as a secular poem & the second part from 54 to 124 as a didactic one. Other view the whole poem as an allegorical representation of human exile from God on the sea of life.

The opening part of the poem ostensibly discusses the miseries & attractions of life at sea, before moving by an abrupt transition to moral reflection on transience of life & ending in an explicitly Christian part , concluding with a prayer.

The whole scenario may be thought of an allegorical representation of human exile on the sea of life, Exile means living in a foreign land away from one’s home or abode. The life in exile can not be as pleasant & conductive as it in one’s own homeland.

The life span in this mortal world for the human race has been considered as an exile from the religious & Christian view point. The seafarer gives an account of his life of hardships & miseries on the sea, “ Sitting day long at an oar’s end clenched against clinging sorrow breast drought I have borne & bitterness to.” Speaking allegorically the sufferings & hardships of the Seafarer are symbolical for the whole human race.

Adam our ancestral great father, has been driven out of heaven , the place of eternal bliss & happiness & thrown into this mortal world of sufferings & deaths. Allegorically, it implies that the whole human race has been driven out from the place of eternal happiness & thrown into an exile of eternal hardships & sufferings of this world.

From an eternally pure source, human race is put into troubled water of life. The Christian faith upholds that heaven is our permanent abode. Life in this world is a life of exile – temporary stay & life in this world is, as if a troubled sea & we, the human beings are having our voyage here in an uncongenial living condition. Life in this mortal world is a life of exile, because life here is temporary & not eternal.

As a human being passes his life of exile from his own home & country, the same is the life of the Seafarer on the sea. He is sea faring amidst all odds, obstacles, hurdles & hostile conditions making his life intolerably painful. He is away from his kith & kin & no brothers or friends are around to share his joys & sorrows.

In the voyage of this exile life, the Seafarer realizes the eternal truth of life or the moral reflection – that is life is transient or transitory. “ I do not believe earthly estate is everlasting” This life of the world will come to an end sooner or later.

Finally, the Seafarer surrenders to the Christian faith & upholds that only trust in heavenly father can make a human soul see its redemption or salvation. God is our real abode. In him we must trust & to him we must surrender. God, the Almighty is our real protector. So, the life of the Seafarer , his belief in seeking refuge in God has been allegorically portrayed in the poem by the poet.