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To Portland, with “The Seafarer”

July 20, 2012 by Steve Mentz Leave a Comment

Here’s a few lines that I retranslated from the great Old English elegy, “The Seafarer.” They are part of my paper for a conference I’ve not been to before, the New Chaucer Society, in Portland next week. Yes, I do also talk about Chaucer…

And now my heart turns

Out of my spirit-locker,

My mind goes

Out onto the sea-flood.

Over the whale’s road

It flies widely

Across the surfaces of the globe.

Then it returns to me

Ravenous and greedy (58-62a).

I also used this poem for the first line of At the Bottom of Shakespeare’s Ocean.

Filed Under: Blue Humanities

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About Steve

Steve Mentz
Professor of English
St. John’s University
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