The Exterer was created by Anglo Saxon poets. They created this manuscript with poems and religious verses inside. There are three poems that stand out and each has a shared theme. In “The Seafarer,” “The Wanderer,” and “The Wife’s Lament,” the Anglo Saxon poets exemplify the idea that life has only one true meaning and that meaning results in death. “The Seafarer” discusses the life of a man alone traveling the seas. It describes his loneliness and grief. The lone man explains the weaks’ power and that the power and riches doesn’t have true value. “The Wanderer” explains the life of men exiled and alone. The story explains when people become wise and how life’s goals eventually have no meaning. The …show more content…
“Death can only bring you earthly praise.” (76-77) The poet asserts that regardless of peoples position during life, it all ends when death occurs. The poem throughout the reading has a sad tone when talking about water but regarding the land has more of a happy tone. The two tones merge into one another when the poet states “the days are gone… Those powers have vanished.” (81-86) When the tones merge it makes it clear to the reader that a persons success in life doesn’t mean anything when they …show more content…
This poem differs somewhat to the other two because rather than regarding money and fame, the poet takes the idea of love and explains that love ends with death. The Wife is deeply in love with her husband and the husband might be too. However, she is imprisoned and left to herself, and that’s when the torture of love begins. She suffers profound emotional pain once she is separated from her husband. She is longing for him only to learn that it was her husband that had plotted behind her back. He had abandoned her, all his moves were calculated, and she realizes that “behind his smiling face,” her life was as she knew, was lost with her love for her lying husband, as if to death. Through this poem, we see an Anglo-Saxon life from a perspective of a woman and we understand the lives and roles of women in that