Oxford English Dictionary:

A mournful poem A song of lamentation, esp. a funeral song or lament for the dead

Elegy

Themes: fleeting youthhorror for the oncoming old age passing of time and of love Lament for a lost past

Themes: love – celebration of the poet’s love,

which is everlasting; suffering for love – the woman is unfaithful

Greek elegy

Latin elegy

Themes: exile loss of loved ones desolation of the worldtransience of worldly joys

Old English Elegy

Introduction

• An elegy is a lament for someone or something that has been lost, often to death. The Anglo-Saxons often used the elegiac mood in their writings; these poems are mournful, haunting, and plangent. "The Wife's Lament" shares with "The Seafarer" and "The Wanderer" several characteristics, such as having a solitary narrator speaking of exile, hostile forces, and the sea,

Elegy

The SeafarerTranslated by Burton Raffel

Composed by an unknown poet

• Part of The Exeter Book- was given to Exeter Cathedral in the 11th century. It contained a collection of Anglo-Saxon manuscripts.

• Anonymous poem of uncertain date

• Lyrical– Expresses a speaker’s personal thoughts or feelings

• Elegiac– Poem of mourning, usually over the death of an individual

The Seafarer

The Seafarer• Can be considered an elegy, or mournful, contemplative

poem.

• Can also be considered a planctus, or “complaint.” This would involve a fictional speaker and a subject that may be loss other than death.

• Regardless, the expression of strong emotion is the key.

• A wraecca tells his tale; he is at sea. (A “wraecca” was a person who had been exiled from his community.)

• Poem highlights the balance between the Anglo-Saxon belief in fate, where everything is grim and overpowering, and the Christian believer’s reliance on God.

The Seafarer

What the poem has that most Anglo-Saxon poems also have:

• Caesuras – pause in a line

• Alliteration joins the 2 parts of the line

• Kennings – metaphorical phrases

The Seafarer

Kennings

• Compound (more than one word) metaphors

• Two word descriptions that substitute for a noun

.

• Create striking, unexpected comparisons

Point of View

• First Person

– The Seafarer-An old sailor

The Seafarer

Characterization

• Courageous• Fearful• Thoughtful• Reflective• Religious• Proud

The Seafarer

• Caesura and alliteration in action

“The only sound / was the roaring sea”

• Kennings

“coldest seeds” = hail

“givers of gold” = Anglo-Saxon kings

The Seafarer

Literary Structure

The Wife’s Lament

• Translated by Ann Stanford

• Composed by an unknown poet

Introduction

• "The Wife's Lament" is one of the most important Anglo-Saxon elegies.

• This rather short poem of 53 lines is another addition from the Exter book.

• 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 Wife’s Lament

Point of View

• The Woods

The Wife’s Lament

Setting

• First person- the Wife

The End

“The Wife’s Lament” and “Yesterday” Comparison

Yesterday, the Beatles Yesterday,

All my troubles seemed so far away,

Now it looks as though they're here to stay, Oh, I believe in yesterday.

Suddenly, I'm not half the man I used to be, There's a shadow hanging over me, Oh, yesterday came suddenly.

Why she Had to go I don't know, she wouldn't say. I said, Something wrong, now I long for yesterday.

Yesterday, Love was such an easy game to play, Now I need a place to hide away, Oh, I believe in yesterday.

Why she Had to go I don't know, she wouldn't say. I said, Something wrong, now I long for yesterday.

Yesterday, Love was such an easy game to play, Now I need a place to hide away, Oh, I believe in yesterday.

Mm-mm-mm-mm-mm-mm-mm.

Mood• In “Yesterday,” the mood is sad and regretful. This is

evident in the following line, “There's a shadow hanging over me.” Here, the speaker shows how gloomy and dark his situation is and how he truly feels inside.

• The mood in “The Wife’s Lament” is also dark and sad. These lines show the sadness of her lost: “The valleys are dark the hills high/ the yard overgrown bitter with briars / joyless dwelling.” In these lines, the details about the setting and the imagery paints a picture of her sorrow in the poem.

Theme of Empathy• In “The Wife’s

Lament,” We empathy towards the wife because of the separation that has been forced upon her by her husband’s family. It would be incredibly hard to feel so alone in the world.

• The theme of “Yesterday” is a man’s loss of the love from his wife and his suffering from their break up. He expresses how he is not the same without her. He still has hope, however, for what once was yesterday to be once again. The pain he is feeling is universal. Even though many people experience this, it doesn’t lessen the pain felt by a person when this happens.

Why are they elegies?• “The Wife’s Lament” is a reflection of how this

woman misses her relationship with her husband. She expresses the pain of loss for what once was and is grieving about the fact that it is gone.

• “Yesterday” is a testimony of a breakup that he wishes never happened. In this testimony, he expresses how he misses his woman’s love and their relationship. He regrets what happened and wants it back the way it was before they split up.

Glory Days, Bruce Springsteen

I had a friend was a big baseball playerback in high schoolHe could throw that speedball by youMake you look like a fool boySaw him the other night at this roadside barI was walking in, he was walking outWe went back inside sat down had a few drinksbut all he kept talking about was Well there's a girl that lives up the blockback in school she could turn all the boy's headsSometimes on a Friday I'll stop byand have a few drinks after she put her kids to bedHer and her husband Bobby well they split upI guess it's two years gone by nowWe just sit around talking about the old times,she says when she feels like cryingshe starts laughing thinking about

Glory days well they'll pass you byGlory days in the wink of a young girl's eyeGlory days, glory days

Glory Days, Bruce Springsteen

My old man worked 20 years on the lineand they let him goNow everywhere he goes out looking for workthey just tell him that he's too oldI was 9 nine years old and he was working at the Metuchen Ford plant assembly lineNow he just sits on a stool down at the Legion hallbut I can tell what's on his mind

Now I think I'm going down to the well tonightand I'm going to drink till I get my fillAnd I hope when I get old I don't sit around thinking about itbut I probably willYeah, just sitting back trying to recapturea little of the glory of, well time slips awayand leaves you with nothing mister butboring stories of glory days

Glory days well they'll pass you byGlory days in the wink of a young girl's eyeGlory days, glory days

Where Were You (When The World Stopped Turning, Alan Jackson

Where were you when the world stopped turnin'That September day?Out in the yard with your wife and childrenOr workin' on some stage in L.A.?Did you stand there in shock at the sight of that black smokeRisin' against that blue sky?Did you shout out in anger, in fear for your neighbor,Or did you just sit down and cry?

Did you weep for the children, they lost their dear loved ones,Pray for the ones who don't know?Did you rejoice for the people who walked from the rubbleAnd sob for the ones left below?Did you burst out in pride for the red, white, and blueAnd heroes who died just doin' what they do?Did you look up to heaven for some kind of answerAnd look at yourself and what really matters?

Where Were You (When The World Stopped Turning, Alan Jackson

Where were you when the world stopped turnin'That September day?Teachin' a class full of innocent childrenOr drivin' on some cold interstate?Did you feel guilty 'cause you're a survivor?In a crowded room did you feel alone?Did you call up your mother and tell her you love her?Did you dust off that Bible at home?

Did you open your eyes and hope it never happened,Close your eyes and not go to sleep?Did you notice the sunset for the first time in agesAnd speak to some stranger on the street?Did you lay down at night and think of tomorrow,Go out and buy you a gun?Did you turn off that violent old movie you're watchin'And turn on ""I Love Lucy"" reruns?Did you go to a church and hold hands with some stranger,Stand in line to give your own blood?Did you just stay home and cling tight to your fam'ly,Thank God you had somebody to love?

Where Were You (When The World Stopped Turning, Alan Jackson

I'm just a singer of simple songs.I'm not a real political man.I watch CNN, but I'm not sure I can tell youThe diff'rence in Iraq and Iran.But I know Jesus and I talk to God,And I remember this from when I was young:Faith, hope, and love are some good things He gave usAnd the greatest is love. And the greatest is love,And the greatest is love.

Where were you when the world stopped turnin'That September day?

The Wanderer

Translated by Charles W. Kennedy

The Wanderer

This work is considered the most nearly perfect in form and feeling of all the surviving Old English poems.

The Wanderer

Dates back to 700 AD when Scandinavia was in upheaval. Immigrants used songs and poems to keep their homelands “alive.”

Exile = separation from one’s home or native countryFor an Anglo-Saxon warrior this meant losing his Lord and his mead hall.

Wraecca

a word meaning “wretch, stranger, unhappy man, and wanderer”

Literary Terms you need to know

• Stoicism

• Tone

• Litotes

• Motif

Stoicism

a state where a human does not show or feel any emotion – completely indifferent, not just hiding feelings

Tone

the attitude of a literary work toward its subject and the audience (formal vs. informal, humorous vs. serious)

Litotes

a characteristic figure of speech in Old English poetry – a form of understatement in which a thing is affirmed by stating the negative of its opposite (think double negative) (ie. She was not unkind = She was kind)

Motif

a recurring literary element that serves as the basis for expanding the narrative (music – When it is heard, the couple falls in love.)

First motif found in The Wanderer• Ubi sunt que ante nos fuerunt? (Latin for

– Where are they who before us went?)

• Lines 90 – 94

• They are nostalgic or seeking the past.

Second motif found in The Wanderer• Mutability = the inevitability of change.

Things are going to change.

• This is at odds with the concept of nostalgia. As a result, this poem has 2 conflicting motifs in action.

The Wanderer in a nutshellA stoic wraecca is at sea remembering the mead hall and his lost life.

Reading Poetry

• Don’t stop at the end of a line, stop at the punctuation mark. The end of the line has to do with the “beat” of the line; it has nothing to do with the “meaning” of the line. Reading to the punctuation mark is called enjambment.

• The land represents safety and security.

• The sea represents hardship and struggle, but the man is drawn to it because it brings him closer to God. The sea represents the power of God.

• “Home” represents heaven or being closer to God.

The Seafarer

Imagery

• The Sea– Initially, the sea is portrayed as something that

causes pain and suffering– “smashing surf” (6)

The Seafarer

Imagery

• “…swept me back And forth in sorrow and fear and pain

Showed me suffering in a hundredships In a thousand ports, and in me”

(2-5)

The Seafarer

Imagery

• The negative aspects of the sea result in loneliness

The Seafarer

Imagery

• “…drifting through winterOn an ice-cold sea, whirled in sorrow, Alone in a world blown clear of love,

Hung with icicles.”

(14-17)

The Seafarer

Imagery

• “The song of the swan Might serve for pleasure, the cry of the sea-fowl,

The death-noise of birds instead of laughter, The mewing of gulls instead of mead.”

(19-22)– Replacements of human companionship

The Seafarer

Imagery

• “No kinsman could offer comfort there, To

a soul left drowning in desolation.”

(25-26)– Religious allusion– Conflict between the rigors of religious life (sea)

and the delights of worldly life (shore)

The Seafarer

Imagery

• Although a negative description has been presented, the speaker longs for the sea in the second stanza.

• “I put myself back on the paths of the sea.” (30)

The Seafarer

Imagery

• “And how my heartWould begin to beat, knowing once

moreThe salt waves tossing the

towering sea!”

(33-35)

The Seafarer

Imagery

• “The time for journeys would come and my soul Called me eagerly out, sent me over The horizon, seeking foreigner’s homes.”

(36-38)– The sea calls his soul

• Another religious reference?

The Seafarer

Final Stanza: Theme• “Fate is stronger And God mightier than any man’s mind. Our thoughts should turn to where our home is,Consider the ways of coming there,Then strive for sure permission for us To rise to that eternal joy, That life born in the love of God And the hope of Heaven. Praise the Holy Grace of Him who honored us, Eternal, unchanging creator of earth. Amen.”

(115-124)

The Seafarer

Final Stanza: Theme

• Metaphor– Ocean=Heaven

• Way is difficult, but worth while– Shore/Land=Earthly Desires &

Temptations• Easy, relaxing, but ultimately

unfulfilling

The Seafarer

Final Stanza: Theme

• Diction

– “home”

• Land/shore?

• Heaven?

The Seafarer