A few months ago, I came across two pieces of writing titled The Wanderer on the same day. The first is an old-english elegy from the Exeter book of the late 10th century. It’s the account from a languishing warrior who has lost his lord and purpose. The second was recorded in Salt-Water Poems and Ballads, an early 20th century hard-cover, and tells of a nearly-wrecked ship that becomes cursed in the mind of the narrating seaman. Both evoke Christian imagery, but otherwise were written in a world and time that is mostly alien to me.
Now you also have the chance to encounter both in the same day! I concede that the circmstances may land as slightly less magical and a touch more contrived- but the interpretation is in your hands. I welcome you to read either or both as interested, and we can chat about them below.
Where is the horse gone?
Where the rider?
Where the giver of treasure?
Where are the seats at the feast?
Where are the revels in the hall?
In Spring of 2026 these lines hit like a brick. Sometimes things do not work out. And then we die before they get better.
Over the water came the lifted song—
Blind pieces in a mighty game we sing;
Life’s battle is a conquest for the strong;
The meaning shows in the defeated thing.
Tag yourself! I’m the trout, “rush[ing] in a dumbness dumb to me alone”. This year feels like the Wanderer, pre glow-up.
But friends, there’s reason for hope. “A Power unseen prepares these things”. Unseen? Go up a few quatrains, this power is invoked through crew of humans, (you know, the thing you and I are), whose only difference from the narrator are that their “hearts grew bold”. Now they get to summer in Gibraltar.
Harken the literal invocation of a Christian baptism if that’s up your alley, focus on the final lines either way. “The meaning shows in the defeated thing”, redeemed through care and courage, that goes on to cradle a song which emanates far beyond itself.
~
Ideally, like jokes and celebrity deaths, my Wanderers would have arrived in threes. I’m still waiting! While the final The Wanderer is poised in the wings, this song will have to cover as backup. Perhaps these words will encourage it out.