The Wanderer is 'simple in fundamental ways' but nonetheless 'intriguing and elusive' (Rosier 1964). It expresses 'only a limited range of ideas' (Gordon 1954) and has no clear structure. Yet it is a 'grave, [a] sombre formal lament [and a] powerful poem' (Woolf 1975), startlingly different from the poetry of later periods. There is no more intense expression of the loneliness of life and nostalgia.