Journeys through poems are often quests into the unknown. This unknown, is sometimes a difficult or drastic situation, where you have to cope without those who you would rely on or just with yourself like when the Ancient Mariner “looked upon the rotting deck, and there the dead men lay.” These people who experience these difficult situations are often deeply changed by what they encountered. The ancient mariner and Bedivere may have been affected psychologically but perhaps due to the time, these poems were written, pre-shell shock diagnosis it would have been inexplicable and the poet would not have been able to explain these defects rationally.
Obviously people are changed by a journey in poetry, not always for the best. These changes are often seen drastic, for example the Death of Roland, with reflection cursing the Ancient Mariner with eternal life enrols into a fate worse than death. From reading this I conclude that genies should carry health warnings.
Two of the poems, at least contain the tales of dashing knights performing their deeds in service of honour, ”Childe Roland to the Dark Tower” and Bedivere and his deeds such as taking Excalibur and “fling him far into the middle mere.” With regard to Roland, what honour is there in finding a dark tower, if he was then to destroy it? If it is a fight of good against evil, then Roland is doing a great job, otherwise he is just trying to prove wrong the knights who failed as he “heard failure prophesised so oft.” Throughout some of the poetry, there are references to certain religious scriptures. There are the crusades of the Knights of the Round Table, The “seven days and seven nights” and the seamen’s games of dice, not dissimilar to the games of dice played by the Roman soldiers whilst Jesus Christ hung upon the cross This could be there to parallel the journeys of Christ and knights on crusades or purely the poets showing their allegiances to Christianity. There are also images of journeying through life to be magical (and of discovery). We hear Childe Roland discovering death through finding the Dark tower with its “lost adventurers”. More magical tales unfold in Morte D’Arthur where a lady in the Lake appears to catch his magical sword, Excalibur.
On these journeys people are travelling into the unknown. These unknown landscapes containing many horrible things, such as “drenched willows” with suicidal throngs, the imposing Sargasso Sea is nightmarish when “day after day we struck nor breath nor motion.” It is moments like these when you can discover yourself. To see what you do when you are at the mercy of the wind, or with hellish visions providing storms in your head as well as your vision. There is also more of a fear factor when downstairs or even around the next corner there may be “Barbarian hordes, hyena foemen and hot blooded lords.” The poems are asking you to stay strong, and fight the daemons in your head. Yet, there are wives who are widows.
Journeys in poetry are often about how people feel before and after they take up upon a quest. All four poems I have studied conclude with people changed by their quest. Obviously Childe Roland has been changed and cannot use what he gained through his journey, as he is dead. Sir Bedivere, I think experienced drastic changes, not physically like Roland, but in his mind. We can see through Arthur’s apparent journey into the lake that , at whatever cost deals should be kept, that the strongest allegiances can be cemented in stone, and then everything could slowly drift off into the mist without a tear. Bedivere must have been so scared when Arthur drifted away, and even more when “On the mere the wailing died away.” What should he do where should he go? The Ancient Mariner becomes the landlubbering nineteenth century Cain as “instead the cross the albatross about my neck was hung” being a sign of his curse. A change in the Eve of St. Agnes was with the lady who helped young Porphyro but, without being too biblical, poor Angela’s death was nothing compared to one on the cross.
In the poems I have studied the journeys described were in their own right great poetry. Through going on certain quests they made greater, often more important discoveries about themselves. They discovered the curse of immortality, that curiosity will kill the cat. Love thrives anywhere as it is the only human form of magic and finally all good things come to an end. From reading the poems you can find out that we need to discover ourselves, and do so as soon as possible. How much can we know about ourselves until we have been on a quest? When you journey you may find things, yet when you take make the same journey in poetry you do not find things you missed, you find more things about yourself. So if life is like a jungle sometimes, search through that jungle.
