An elegy can be defined as a sad, reflective poem. The main purpose of an elegy is to express strong emotion. During the 11th century, people would gather in cathedrals and tell stories from The Exeter Book, where many elegies can be found. The Exeter Book contains several Anglo-Saxon manuscripts, like The Seafarer and The Wife’s Lament. Lamb to the Slaughter, while not a poem, is like elegies in the sense that it expresses strong emotion. The Seafarer is an Anglo-Saxon poem written by Burton Raffel. A man describes the hardships he faces while traveling across the ocean. Tone is a writer’s attitude toward a subject. The tone of this poem can be considered as sorrowful and miserable. For example, in lines 8-12, the author says, “My feet were cast in icy bands, bound with frost, with frozen chains, and hardship groaned around my heart. Hunger tore at my sea-weary soul”. ‘Icy bands’ can be translated into frostbite and the phrase ‘hunger tore’ can be translated to famine, which are signs of agony. Alliteration is the occurrence of the same letter or sound at the beginning of a word. Multiple times the author uses alliteration. For example, “the terrible tossing of the waves” and “cold clasps”. The author uses alliteration to emphasize certain things, like the waves in the example above. …show more content…
A woman describes her grief from being separated by a loved one. A conflict is a disagreement, and in this poem, the man vs. self conflict is present. I feel the author upsets herself and she has a negative attitude. For example, she starts the poem with “I am able to tell all the hardships I’ve suffered since I grew up”. The author uses this to help the readers feel the emotion the author is. Repitition is a common literary device used by authors. ‘Grief’ is used several times throughout the poem, making it a reoccurring term. She uses this in order to make her feelings and emotions