1. “The Seafarer” “The Wanderer” “The Wife’s Lament”
Study Guide

2. Unit 1: Part 1 Study Guide
The phrase “summer’s sentinel” is used to describe the cuckoo. What literary device is this?
“The song of the swan/Might serve for pleasure…” from “The Seafarer” What characteristic from Anglo-Saxon poetry is illustrated in this line?
What is the subject of the first part of “The Seafarer”?
Why do you think so many poems of this period are about wandering and exile?
Why did the speaker in “The Wanderer” leave his home?

3. Unit 1: Part 1 Study Guide What is the theme of “The Wanderer”?
What does the narrator of “The Wanderer” miss the most?
Why did Anglo-Saxon poetry use the caesura?
What does the wife think her husband is doing in “The Wife’s Lament”?
“My lord commanded me to move my dwelling here.” What aspect of Anglo-Saxon life does this line from “The Wife’s Lament” suggest?

4. Unit 1: Part 1 Study Guide
In “The Wife’s Lament,” how does the wife assume her husband is now feeling?
Which characteristic of Anglo-Saxon poetry is illustrated by “The Seafarer”?
What initiated the wife’s exile in “The Wife’s Lament”?
What is the reason, despite all the hardships he’s suffered, that the narrator in “The Seafarer” continues to follow the life of the sea?
Which of these elements from “The Seafarer” is the most characteristic of lyric poetry?
Regular rhythm and rhyme
Strong reliance on figurative language
Intense person emotion
Narrative structure

5. Unit 1: Part 1 Study Guide
What vocabulary word would best complete the sentence? The Seafarer had no _______________ toward the lord he served.
What vocabulary word would best complete the sentence? The ________________ stood watch over the entrance to the castle.
What vocabulary word would best complete the sentence? The ________________ man always attempted to help others in need.
Know the meanings of the following words: rapture, compassionate, fervent, admonish

6. Unit 1: Part 1 Study Guide
How would you describe the speaker’s message at the end of “The Seafarer”?
What words or phrases from the following lines help you recognize the historical context of the line?
“Be he outlawed far/in a strange folk-land---that my beloved sits/under a rocky cliff rimed with frost/a lord dreary in spirit.”

7. Unit 1: Part 1 Study Guide: Essay Questions, PICK ONE
Know the historical context of a piece of poetry can help you understand many poems. Choose one of the Anglo-Saxon poems in this group. In an essay, explain how knowing the historical context of the poem gives you clues to its meaning. Answer these questions: What historical points are mentioned in the poem? How is the speaker affected by these historical points? How do you feel about the speaker and the events he or she experiences? Use at least two details from the poem to help you respond.
Anglo-Saxons believed that human life is shaped by fate. An individual’s wishes and actions could not always change a person’s fate. Choose one of the poems in this group. Explain how the speaker is influenced by a belief in fate. Give at least two examples from the poem to support your ideas.
In the three texts, “The Seafarer,” “The Wanderer,” and “The Wife’s Lament,” the speaker has lost his or her home. Choose one poem, and in an essay, describe the home the speaker has lost.

8. Unit 1: Part 1 HONORS Study Guide: Essay Questions
A fundamental Anglo-Saxon belief is that human life is shaped by fate. How is this belief reflected in the poems in this section? Answer this question in an essay, giving examples from one or more of the poems to support explanation.
Most of the poems and stories of the Anglo-Saxon period were passed along by the oral tradition. In an essay, tell how the use of features such as kenning and caesura may have helped maintain this oral tradition. Illustrate your explanation with examples from the selections.
In the three texts, “The Seafarer,” “The Wanderer,” and “The Wife’s Lament,” the speaker has lost his or her home. Choose one poem, and in an essay, describe the home the speaker has lost.