The Wife's Lament Analysis

Old English literature, also referred to as Anglo-Saxon literature, can be described as gloomy or grim. These writings reflected the emotions and conflicts the people were experiencing during this time. Two examples of Anglo-Saxon literature that are very alike are “The Wanderer” and “The Wife’s Lament”. “The Wanderer” and “The Wife’s Lament” are similar in their elegiac tone, theme, and form of writing.
Many Anglo-Saxon poems contain a certain mournful tone that longs for the past. This tone, known as elegiac tone, is prevalent in both the “The Wife’s Lament” and “The Wanderer.” In “The Wife’s Lament,” the narrator’s exile has caused her to reflect on the pleasant times she had with her husband. She yearns to go back to those days when …show more content…
The narrator travels alone far from his home. On the other hand, the narrator in “The Wanderer” does not open express his feelings unlike the narrator in “The Wife’s Lament.” He believes that expressing sadness is not good for a person; one must “…bind fast/ in breast-chamber a dreary mind” (17-18). In other words, he believes one must not share one’s thoughts with anyone. Furthermore, both poems share a similar theme of loss and separation. The narrator of “The Wife’s Lament” losses her lover because of an unknown reason. After he leaves, she goes out in search of him and soon realizes that her “man’s kinsmen began to think/ in secret that they would separate us, / so we would live far apart in the world…” (11-13). Although she does not know the reason why he left, she believes her husband’s family does not want them together. Likewise, the narrator in “The Wanderer” has been “deprived of his homeland” (20) and is “far from his kin” (21). He travels in search of a new home, friends, and king to serve. He believes that this loss and separation is his uncontrollable destiny because “fate is established”