The Wife’s Lament

E120756

"The Wife’s Lament" is an Old English elegiac poem, voiced by a sorrowful woman lamenting separation and exile, and is one of the most studied lyric texts in Anglo-Saxon literature.

All labels observed (3)

Label Occurrences
The Wife’s Lament canonical 3
Bride's Lament 1
The Wife's Lament 1

How this entity was disambiguated

Statements (49)

Predicate Object
instanceOf Anglo-Saxon literature work
Old English poem
elegy
lyric poem
anonymous true
approximateDateOfComposition 10th century
approximateDateOfManuscript late 10th century
centralTheme emotional suffering
exile
lament
loneliness
loss
marital breakdown
separation
sorrow
collection Exeter Book
surface form: Exeter Book elegies
countryOfOrigin Anglo-Saxon England
genre elegy
lyric poetry
language Old English
lineCountApproximate 53 lines
literaryDevice alliteration
kennings
variation
literaryPeriod Old English period
literaryTradition Anglo-Saxon literature
manuscript Exeter Book
manuscriptLocation Exeter Cathedral Library
meter alliterative verse
narrativeVoice first-person female speaker
originalScript Insular minuscule
originalTitle none (modern conventional title)
preservationStatus survives in a single manuscript
relatedWork The Seafarer
The Wanderer
Wulf and Eadwacer
scholarlyDebate genre classification
interpretation of the speaker’s situation
relationship between speaker and her lord
setting earth-cave or burial mound
place of exile
speakerGender female
studiedAs one of the most discussed Old English lyrics
subjectMatter a woman lamenting separation from her husband
forced separation and exile
subjectOf feminist literary criticism
philological analysis
translation into modern English
voiceCharacterization sorrowful woman

How these facts were elicited

Referenced by (5)

Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.

The Seafarer relatedWork The Wife’s Lament
The Wanderer relatedWork The Wife’s Lament
Anglo-Saxon literature notableWork The Wife’s Lament
this entity surface form: The Wife's Lament
Exeter Book content The Wife’s Lament
The Drowsy Chaperone hasNotableSong The Wife’s Lament
this entity surface form: Bride's Lament