Exile and Pain in Three Elegiac Poems
There is a great similarity between the three elegiac poems, The Wanderer, The Wife of Lament, and The Seafarer. This similarity is the theme of exile. Exile means separation, or banishment from ones native country, region, or home. During the Anglo Saxon period, exile caused a great amount of pain and grief. The theme is shown to have put great sadness into literature of this time period. The majority of the world's literature from the past contains the theme of exile.<br> <br>The Wife of Lament is another perfect example of literature with exile, and was written by an unknown author. The most striking example of exile in this poem can be seen in the passage when she says, "A song I sing of sorrow unceasing, the tale of my trouble, the weight of my woe, woe of the present, and woe of the past, woe never-ending of exile, and grief, but never since girlhood greater then now." The woman's husband left her in a life of exile, after he left. She is constantly looking for him, and finds a life that is quite similar to being locked away in prison. She is locked up in a cave under a tree. Her joy comes from thinking that her husband is as miserable as her. <br><br>In the first passage from the poem, The Wanderer, it speaks of exile by saying, "To the wanderer, weary of exile cometh Gods pity, compassionate love, though woefully toiling on wintry seas with churning oar in the icy wave, homeless and helpless he fled from fate." It can be easily seen, in this passage, how common exile was in the poem, but also what a great pain it must have been to deal with the trial. The author continually describes how incredibly miserable he is living his life in exile, how awful it is to have to live without the guidance from a higher rank being a lord and king in this case, how there is no one to talk to and to share ones feelings with, and how there is no money or riches of any kind for a man who is living in exile. For the most part, the poem is sad and depressing and the reader