Old English Lyrical Poetry Essay

The second part allegorically represents that the troubles of the seaman are the troubles of earthly life and the call of the naval is the call in the soul to go to its true home with God.The poem is remarkable for (as Legouis puts) The somber and violent pictures it gives of northern seas in which sufferings from cold mingles with the pains of water supply and wind. The Ruined Burg or the Ruin- * It is an elegy not for the misfortune of a person but for a place. * The unknown poet laments for the vanished glory of a abundant city, probably the Roman built city Bath, which was turned into debris by the Anglo-Saxon aggression, Conquest and settlement. * The poem can be shared in terzetto parts- ) First the poet describes the ancient gorgeous buildings now deserted and rootless and tottering. b) Next he goes to muse on its golden past and its adorned and crowded impressive princess and warriors. c) Finally he contrasts the runions present with the pompous past. * The poem is rem arkable for its nostalgic melancholy and for its descriptive nature. Deors Lament * It is a poem of 42 lines, divided into stanzas and it is included in the Exeter Book. * It is the lamentation of Deor, a scop who after years of service has been supplanted by another minstrel, Herrenda.Finally he consoles himself by considering the misfortune of others. * It is written in strophic form throughout and each strophe ends with a refrain. * There are altogether seven sections in the poem. * In the first five sections, the mentions the adversities that befall others but ends with a note of consolation in the sixth section he speaks of the misfortune of mankind in general. And in the seventh section the poet mentions his own misfortune. In this commission the poem is logically well-knit.It remains plainly heathenic in sentiment. The Wifes Complaint * It is a kind of monologue. * The narrator is a woman whose preserve has left(a) her and gone to the sea. She is forced to live in an old d welling dug out of earth under oak by her husbands relatives. She academic session under the tree laments over her miserable lot all day. Friendless and fore shaken she bewails her loneliness and the vows of love that have come to nothing. * The poem is inscrutable in melancholy feeling. The Husbands Message * It exists in fragments.A good many lines of this poem are lost for ever. * An exiled husband sends his message to his married woman by means of letters carved on a piece of wood. The wood tells the wife its own life story and its journey in a ship. It tells her that though the circumstances let her husband out of home he has been able to gain a position of wealth and dignity. Finally it bids her to join with her husband in the place of exile. * To some critics the poem is a sequel to The Wifes Complaint but some would to see it as an independent poem.