Transcript The Wife’s Lament” and “Yesterday”

Elegy
Oxford English Dictionary:
A mournful poem
A song of lamentation, esp. a funeral song or
lament for the dead
Greek elegy
Themes:
fleeting youth
horror for the oncoming old age
passing of time and of love
Lament for a lost past
Latin elegy
Themes:
love – celebration of the poet’s love,
which is everlasting;
suffering for love – the woman is unfaithful
Old English Elegy
Themes:
exile
loss of loved ones
desolation of the world
transience of worldly joys
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,
The Seafarer
Translated by Burton Raffel
Composed by an unknown poet
The Seafarer
• 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
• 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.
The Seafarer
• 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
Kennings
• Compound (more than one word) metaphors
• Two word descriptions that substitute for a noun
.
• Create striking, unexpected comparisons
The Seafarer
Point of View
• First Person
– The Seafarer-An old sailor
The Seafarer
Characterization
•
•
•
•
•
•
Courageous
Fearful
Thoughtful
Reflective
Religious
Proud
The Seafarer
Literary Structure
• Caesura and alliteration in action
“The only sound / was the roaring sea”
• Kennings
“coldest seeds” = hail
“givers of gold” = Anglo-Saxon kings
The Wife’s Lament
• Translated by Ann Stanford
• Composed by an unknown poet
The Wife’s Lament
Introduction
• "The Wife's Lament" is one of the most important AngloSaxon 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
• First person- the Wife
Setting
• The Woods
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 player
back in high school
He could throw that speedball by you
Make you look like a fool boy
Saw him the other night at this roadside bar
I was walking in, he was walking out
We went back inside sat down had a few drinks
but all he kept talking about was
Well there's a girl that lives up the block
back in school she could turn all the boy's
heads
Sometimes on a Friday I'll stop by
and have a few drinks after she put her kids to
bed
Her and her husband Bobby well they split up
I guess it's two years gone by now
We just sit around talking about the old times,
she says when she feels like crying
she starts laughing thinking about
Glory days well they'll pass you by
Glory days in the wink of a young
girl's eye
Glory days, glory days
Glory Days, Bruce Springsteen
My old man worked 20 years on the line
and they let him go
Now everywhere he goes out looking for work
they just tell him that he's too old
I was 9 nine years old and he was working at
the Metuchen Ford plant assembly line
Now he just sits on a stool down at the Legion
hall
but I can tell what's on his mind
Now I think I'm going down to the well tonight
and I'm going to drink till I get my fill
And I hope when I get old I don't sit around
thinking about it
but I probably will
Yeah, just sitting back trying to recapture
a little of the glory of, well time slips away
and leaves you with nothing mister but
boring stories of glory days
Glory days well they'll pass you by
Glory days in the wink of a young
girl's eye
Glory 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 children
Or workin' on some stage in L.A.?
Did you stand there in shock at the sight of that black smoke
Risin' 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 rubble
And sob for the ones left below?
Did you burst out in pride for the red, white, and blue
And heroes who died just doin' what they do?
Did you look up to heaven for some kind of answer
And 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 children
Or 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 ages
And 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 you
The 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 us
And 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
country
For 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 nutshell
A 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 Seafarer
• 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 hundred
ships
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 winter
On 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 heart
Would begin to beat, knowing once
more
The 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?