Comment on the note of melancholy in
Anglo-Saxon elegiac poetry with reference to any one poem that you have read.
Answer: An elegy means a poem of mourning or song
of lamentation. We find them in origin both in Greek literature and in Latin.
However, term 'elegy' was at first appeared to all kinds of poetry written in a
particular metre, called elegiac metre. The subject of an elegy as such
could then be anything tragic, comic, serious, sad or sentimental. But
subsequently the scope of elegy become confined and the name was applied to the
specific kind of poem of moaning or the song of lamentation. An elegy is now
supposed to have these features: - Reflective, pensiveness and subjectivity.
Of the Angles – Saxon elegies, the
specific mention may be made of “ Widsith, The
Ruined or Ruined Burg, The Wife’s Complaint, The Husband's Massage, Deor’s
Lament, Wulf and Eadwacer The Wanderer and the Seafarer.”
The heroic
traditions of The Wanderer were based on Fate and God. He was believed that
they controlled people's lives and could "put men into positions where it
seems impossible for them to emerge with honor".They are judged by their
choice which they carry out their chosen aim, never looking back. The courage to
resist one's fate brought about the idea of Fame, which "is something
greater than Fate": the strength of will and the courage of human beings,
and the memory which could preserve their deeds. If he resisted his fate, he
had to have courage because it often meant facing great physical hardships,
knowing that he would most likely die. But the Wanderer would rather die in an
early, courageous death, trying to achieve Fame rather than sitting back and
doing nothing, because "Fame dies never for him".
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