Burton Raffel

Presented By:Jeremy Gutierrez and

Emily Salinas

Burton

Raffel

Burton Raffel was born in 1928. He has lived and worked in four different countries. Raffel has taught English, Classics, and Comparative Literature at universities in the United States. Throughout his lifetime, Raffel has published many works of literature. Much of his books include fiction, poetry, translations, literary and historical criticism, teaching texts and anthologies. Some of his translations include; Beowulf, Horace: Odes, Epodes, Epistles, and Satires. Burton Raffel is currently living in Louisiana where he was a distinguished professor at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette until 2003.

Setting

The setting of th

is poem is

on the ocean during the

drastically freezing winter

season.

“My feet were cast in icy bands, bound with frost, with frozen chains, and hardship groaned around my heart.” (line 8-11)

"How wretched I was, drifting through winter on an ice-cold sea, whirled in sorrow, alone in a world blown clear of love, hung with icicles. The hailstorms flew. The only sound was the roaring sea, the freezing waves.” (line 14-19)

ElegiacThe Seafarer is a poem that provides in depth visualization to suffering, endurance, loneliness, and spiritual yearning.

Didactic

The first section is painful and personal. It’s a description

of the suffering and the

attractions sea life. The

seco

nd

secti

on

abruptly

changes

into the

seafarer’s

journey

towards

faith and

religion.

Speaker?

The speaker of this story is the Seafarer.

He is addressing people in general.

This poem originates from the Old English

period of English Literature 450-1100

The speaker urges the reader in the second section to

forget their accomplishments

and anticipate God’s judgment in

the afterlife.

The poem addresses both pagan and

Christian ideas about overcoming the sense

of suffering and loneliness.

SummaryThe basic theme of

this poem generally focuses

on sorrow and longing for the

better days, or the old days the man

once had. The speaker

describes a world of exile and

loneliness and his feelings of alienation

physically and his suffering both physically and

mentally.

Explicit

Literary Devices

Lines 39-41“ But there isn’t a man on earth so proud, So born to greatness, so bold with his youth,”

Lines 44-45“No harps ring in his heart, no rewards, No passion for women, no worldly pleasures,”

Lines 82-83“Now there are no rulers , no emperors, No givers of gold, as once there were,”

Parallelism Alliteration/SimilesMetaphors

Alliteration:Line 69

“three threats”

Simile:Line 90

“Bent like the men who mould it.”

Symbol/Metaphor:The sea throughout the

entire poem is very symbolic. It’s like a metaphor

for life itself.