Message From The Exeter Book Analysis

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Messages From Exile
(An Analysis of Messages From The Exeter Book)

The Exeter book is a book of three poems: The Seafarer,The Wanderer, and The Wife’s Lament. These poems are set in the time of the Anglo-Saxons. It discusses the feeling of exile both at sea and on land. Many messages are present throughout the poems are centered around results of sadness. Three messages from The Exeter Book are loneliness, escaping through dreams, and grief.
The first message that can be taken from The Exeter Book is loneliness from The Seafarer. This poem is about the life of an Anglo-Saxon warrior who is always at sea. He endures storms and what feels like endless gaps between returning home. The poem discusses the storm that the warrior is in literally and metaphorically. The people he has back home don’t understand what he’s going through. Physically he’s cold, hungry, and alone. “On an ice-cold sea, whirled in sorrow, …show more content…

This poem is about a woman who is in exile. “I grieved each dawn wondered where my lord on earth might be” Her husband went on a journey and she was left to grieve every dawn wondering where he was. She didn’t know her husband very well and he mistreated her, but in that time a woman 's husband was all she had. Her left her alone when she needed him and his family didn’t support her. This meant she had nothing, she was alone and grief stricken. She was sent out to live under a tree like nothing had ever happened. She weeps over her exile and hardships. She is grief stricken over the loss of her husband and everything else in her life.
Clearly three messages that can be taken from The Exeter book. From The Seafarer the message present is loneliness. Another message of escaping through dreams can be taken from The Wanderer. And finally, from The Wife’s Lament the message of grief can be taken.Throughout The Exeter Book, the messages center around results from