The Wanderer Analysis

“The Wanderer”: A Literary Analysis “The Wanderer,” a short poem written during the Anglo-Saxon period, is an elegy regarding a warrior whose lord, friends, and land have been destroyed by war. Many elements of the poem bring its sorrowful message to life, such as the perspective it is told in, its elegiac tone common to the poetry of the time, its eloquent, descriptive diction, and, although not necessarily mournful, a transition into something more of a wisdom poem. Most of these qualities exemplify the style of writing found in various works of the Anglo-Saxon era. First of all, the poet made the choice of expressing experiences and thoughts through the main character from a first person point-of-view, as is common among several Anglo-Saxon poems. This choice works quite well for the poem due to the fact that it allows the reader to connect with the speaker on a more personal level. For example, the benefit of this writing perspective shows through when in part of his soliloquy the speaker states, “Therefore I don 't know why my woeful heart …show more content…
The author of “The Wanderer” utilizes an abundance of descriptive language throughout the poem to further involve the reader and enhance the poem 's liveliness. Adjectives such as “melancholy,” “downcast,” and “wretched” are but a few of the words that breathe life into this poem. For instance, as the speaker is describing the sorrows of dreaming of his lord and kinsmen, only to wake up to a harsh reality, he states, “Then the warrior, friendless, awakens again” (45). Here, the notion that the speaker is in fact friendless being reiterated is curiously a striking example of the unique and descriptive rhetoric that is such a compelling characteristic of “The Wanderer.” As is true for any poem, without the use of such eloquent words, “The Wanderer”, would seem a great deal less