The Wanderer Man and the Natural World Quotes

The lone-dweller's situation – having to cross the "seaways" – is portrayed here as the kind of thing that would cause him to doubt the favor and mercy of God. He hopes for these things even though his present situation on the open ocean gives him a reason to doubt.

Instead of just saying that his lord was buried, the speaker says that "earth" (dirt), covered him in darkness. This personification of the dirt makes it into a somewhat ominous force, since it becomes the agent of death here.

The friendless man here has just dreamed that he's back in the warm mead-hall among his friends. The waves, birds, and wintry weather contrast sharply with that dream. They become the antithesis of everything that's good in life. The "spreading wings" of the birds emphasize their freedom, possibly even joy, which contrasts with the way the exile feels.

Later in the poem, these buildings are called the "work of giants." The fact that wind and storms have the ability to shake them and cause them to crumble is a testament to nature's ability to destroy the creations of mankind, even the ones that seem most permanent.

The "beasts of battle" that benefit from the slaughter of war is an oft-repeated motif in Anglo-Saxon poetry. Here, just like the winter weather in the previous lines, nature has the ability to dismember and destroy.

The "snake-shapes" carved on the wall behind the fallen men remind us of the beasts of battle mentioned a few lines earlier, making the wall seem vaguely threatening. These lines also say that "ash-spears" are "hungry" for corpses. The ash-tree was the raw material for these weapons, and the fact that it's mentioned here at all, and that the ash-spears are personified, makes the ash-tree partially responsible for these deaths. Once again, nature destroys.

Yet again, nature becomes an ominous force that "attacks," this time in the form of the winter weather that batters the building and "binds" the ground. It's seems even more evil when the storm is called the "dark one" whose attack is motivated by anger.