The seafarer and the wife’s lament

This writing represents different expressions of sorrow over loss and death. They are Anglo-Saxon
poems and by comparing them, we identify the contrast between the exile of men and women during that
time period.

“The Seafarer” is composed of elegiac and moralizing views. The poem can be read as a dramatic
monologue or simply a dialogue between two people. Therefore the the poem can be divided into two
sections. The first section is a personal description of life at sea. In the second section, the narrator takes a
turn and talks about moral speculation about fame, fortune, and in essence, about life itself. It ends with a
view of God asmighty and powerful. The narrator urges the reader to forget earthly accomplishments and
anticipate God’s judgment in the afterlife. The poem contain both Christian and pagan ideas about
overcoming the sense of suffering and loneliness. The narrator talks about fearing God’s judgment in the
afterlife expressing Christian views, but also states about buried treasure and winning glory battles to
express pagan views. “The Seafarer” is considered an allegory discussing life as a journey and the human
condition as that exile in the sea. “The Wife’s Lament” is an elegiac poem expressing a wife’s feelings
pertaining to exile. Hhowever, the poem doesn’t mention why the wife was exiled and separated from her
Lord. It uses the theme of mourning over a departed leader with the theme of mourning of a departed
lover. The poem has the motif of loneliness from exile and longing for companionship. The loneliness she
feels can be seen in numerous Anglos-Saxon texts and poems that talks about exile. This motif is constantly
depicted through text as if to express the desire Anglo-Saxon people have for a person to share the pain in
times of heartaches.

Both poems contain feeling of longing forsomething. The protagonists from the poems are
experiencing loneliness from exile. One is exiled from life with companionship, while one is separated from
her spouse. However, their exiles are for different reasons. The sailor is away from civilization to self reflect,
while the wife is forced to leave from society. The commonl motifs of exile and the sense of fate from it are
present in the two poems. Overall, the sadness within the two poems is evident. However, “The Seafarer”is
less depressing since the second part of the poem has a more positive note. The message from the two
poems is that loneliness can lead to despair, but we mmust learrn to appreciate life in the way God
prepared it for us. Both poems describe places in which life is uncomfortable, and the misery they feel in
exile. The seafarer mourns the lack of a leader, while the wife mourns the lack of her husband
companionship. However, the seafarer find solace in God to get by day by day.

To sum up, both situations express the theme of loneliness and exile seen from the perspective of
the wife and the seafarer.sdjk jcncd