Dr. Meredith Grey on Grey’s Anatomy once said, “Cause you never think that the last time is the last time. You think there will be more. You think you have forever, but you don’t.” DA definite lifetime is a major idea that the unknown writer of “The Seafarer” tries to portray. “The Seafarer” is about a man who is exiled from his country and sent alone ato sea. The sea leads him to toggle with philosophical ideas like not living forever and the importance of life. The man also grows a spiritual connection with G-d and understands the power he has in the control of people’s lives. The narrator also comes to terms with death and how G-d has that power. Through exile at sea, G-d, and death, the writer of “The Seafarer” is able to portray the importance of not taking life for granted.
Through the writer’s use of exile at sea, the man is forced to think about his life and life around him through. The writer uses the sea as a symbol for rebirth. In the man’s case, it is a rebirth from his past ideas. When he is exiled and lonely, he can analyze the life going on around him. The writer writes about the man at sea, “[He is] Wondering what Fate has willed and will do” (43). While the man is alone, he is forced to think about society and the future. The sea and the rebirth aspect causes the man to think of the world. He sees how he must consider that life does not last forever and it will end. Being alone at sea causes him to analyze different fates in life deeply. He analyzes so deeply that the writer writes, “No harps ring in his heart, no rewards,/No passion for women, no worldly pleasures,/Nothing, only the ocean’s heave;” (46-47). Fate to the man when alone at sea is a very important concept because it leads him to lose all the other feelings and signs that make him more human. He worries excessively about fate and mentions fate a lot. The unknown of fate causes him to feel the need to live life fully.
Due to the man’s rebirth in ideas during his exile, he is lead to a more spiritual outlook on life. Being at sea causes him to have a greater spiritual connection and better understanding of G-d’s power especially over people’s lives. He understands that G-d allows for everything to occur, and the narrator’s solitaryude allows him to notice that not all people are as spiritual and share his beliefs. When talking about his spiritual insight, the narrator says, “...Fate is stronger/And G-d mightier than any man’s mind” (115-116). The man realizing that G-d has more power than anything shows his rebirth in thought. He understands that everything revolves around G-d and that G-d controls everyone’s fate. G-d to him is his world since he is alone in the water and he is able to understand that he has control of his world. At the end of the poem when the man says, “Eternal, unchanging creator of earth. Amen” (124). The writer’s inclusion of this line shows how the narrator gained a strong spiritual connection to G-d and he understands the true greatness of G-d. His exile leads him to understand G-d’s true powers and that he and the rest of the world should appreciate life and not live so blindly.