Elegies or Elegiac Poetry

The term elegy mainly relates to the Anglo Saxon native themes as it grew out of their melancholic passion and also entrenched within the people as well. The tone or the platform for elegy was developed drawing inspiration from the struggles and immense encounter with the hostile and natural forces in order to survive in their daily lives. The elegies have emerged as a form instigated by the struggles and loss of life of native people in the battle of existence. in other words, an elegy could be labelled as the fruit of uncertainty. The continuous loss and deemed possibility of gain had led the people to encrypt their feeling into words and poetries which eventually recognised as the elegy. The most celebrated elegies are pointed as the "The Wanderer", "Deor's Lament", "The Seafarer", " Ruin", " The Husband's Massage" " The Wife's Complaint" " Wulf and Edwacer". 

This small group of poetries can also be divided into two small groups and the first group contains the grandeur of kings and the old cities while the second group of poems have delivered the emotions of personal and individual feelings. 

The Wanderer:

Led by the power of loss and grief, 'The Wanderer' has been able to present the inner emotion of the speaker who had lost his friend and a lord and wanders in search of happiness which once he beheld. The poem is not simple and the speaker initiates the elegy by commenting on the situation prompted by exile and also the pain of being alone. All the elements used or delivered in the poem refers to the manifestation of sadness and heavy heart that the speaker is trying to convey. Starting from glimpses of the desolated sea and falling ruined building with mead hall along with falling snow refers to the melancholic sense and the long lost happiness of the speaker. The poem also tries to project the hopelessness of the speaker and how a more mature outlook towards the situation is incorporated. 

                      " Here Possessions are transient, here friend one transient, 

here man is transient, here omen is transient, 

all this firm-set earth becomes empty".

The above lines have independently exhibited the acceptance of the author or the speaker, that nothing is permanent in this world and loneliness and melancholy is the ultimate gain of the human being. 

Deor's Lament:

Deo's lament is a poem of forty-two lines in which the sense of hope and affirmative thinking has been highlighted. The Deor's Lament is a poem describing the lamenting of a minstrel who was a bard at the court of Heodenning. His position at the court was taken by his rival and he was cast off by his former lord. instead of so much sadness, the bard was still in hope that better day will come and the below lines are able to express the feeling of the bard clearly;

                " that was overcome, so this can of mine"

By this statement, the lamenter intends to deliver the message that if the great sorrows of germanic legends could overcome, so the lamenter's will also be resolved one day. This elegy represents the high and low image of sorrow and hopes concurrently. 

The Sea Fearer: 

 The Sea Fearer also found from the Exeter also represents the maritime of contemporary England as the elegy delivers the personal feeling of an old sea fearer.  The 108 lines poem has represented the inner emotions of a seafarer who is sailing along on his tiny boat. According to the sailor, the summer and spring times are full of marrying and leisure and the alone time at the sea full of challenges and difficulties has made him realise as he delivers a statement of warning to young blood who are eager to explore the sea life due to the difficulties. 

" The days have departed, all the pomp of earthly realms;

All that host has fallen, and their joys have departed".

Many critics have been evidently argued that the sailor might take a stand against the urges of young sailors, but the discussion is quite vague and imperfect in nature. 

Wulf and Eadwacer:

The Wulf and Eadwacer is a fragmented 19 lines poem that is mere monologue expressing a woman's bereaved heart wanting o reunited with her love. Here, the woman is in love with Wulf and is forced to live with Eadwacer her husband. it represented the passionate cry of the woman;

"Wulf, my Wulf, my longings for thee,

Have made me sick, thy rare visits,

It was my sorrowful heart, not want of food ...."

Similar to the above lines from Wulf and Eadwacer, The Husband's Massage and the Wife's Complaint is the love elegy which has been woven without sheer twist and still it survived the intensity of actual utterance.