The+Wifes+Lament


 * [[image:lamenting.jpg]] \**


 * Analysis-**

This rather short poem of 53 lines is another addition from the Exter book. It, along with The Seafarer and The wanderer, is an elegy. It can be classified as so due to the great amount of sorrow in the poem. This Anglo-Saxon poem is an Old English //frauenlied,// or woman's song, is mainly concerned with the expression of grief from the female speaker. Our female speaker has just recently lost his husband, and mourns his death. She is also the protagonist of the poem. The setting of the poem is out in the woods somewhere, as the lamenting wife plainly states in lies 27-28, "The man sent me out to live in the woods under an oak tree in this den in the earth." She explains that her pain keeps her from keeping any sort of order around her living space as she says in lines 30-32, "The valleys are dark the hills high the yard overgrown bitter with briars a joyless dwelling." The theme of exile is continued here in "The Wife's Lament" as it has in the previous two poems. This is a key feature in the Anglo-Saxon poetry style, whether it be of battles lost or exiles prefered, there is a sad and mournful aspect to the poems.