Critical Appreciation Of The Poem Wife's Lament

In the poem “Wife’s Lament”, the wife goes through a series of emotions that has occurred due to her isolation between her and her husband and also being unaware of why she is put in the position of being alone. She begins to reminisce on events from her past and often adds input on how it correlates to what she is feeling now. Although this poem is filled with sorrow, yearn and isolation, I believe this is a poem about repentance towards her husband. During this time period, women were only submissive to their husbands and that was the way things had to be. Women had no say in where and how they live their lives, where ever their husband went so did they.

In the beginning of the poem, in line 8, she states “wondered where my lord my first

Once a woman is to become married, she is to follow wherever her husband goes and that can even result in leaving her family behind. In line 16-17 of the modern English version, it states “I had few loved ones in this land or faithful friends. For this my heart grieves:” This expresses her emotions changing from the thought of not being with her husband but now she doesn’t have her family around to help her cope with her sorrow. Being forced to leave your family as a women is a big decision to make, especially if it’s to be with a man. A women’s family is all she has in the beginning. But she gave her all into a man and she ended up with nothing but a broken heart and no family. She went out her way to please him by marrying the enemy. Love can blind a person and cause them to do crazy

The Women’s International Center website stated “During the early history of the United States, a man virtually owned his wife and children as he did his material possessions.” Women have been considered property for many years. As stated in in the Wife’s Lament background, the wife had been possibly used as a peace agreement. It didn’t matter if her husband had loved her, family always came before anything and anyone else, and that included wives which whom were considered property. In addition to women being considered property throughout history, they have been known to give themselves up to please others, such as being slaves for money and even gaining some