Write a brief essay on old English elegiac poetry.

Write a brief essay on old English elegiac poetry.

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.

Anglo Saxon has either a heroic theme or of lyrical learning. But among these lyrical poems the exception is Widsith.

 Widsith: It is preserved in The Exeter Book. 'Widsith’ means ‘The far-goer’. It is a poem of 143 lines divided into three Parts –  

              

(A) A prologue – first few lines.

(B) A speech by Widsith – next 125 lines. 

 (C)En Epilogue – last few lines.

It is the autobiography of an interment minstrel who recounts the story of his long travels through the old Germanic world. During his tour he visited different tribal chiefs, lords, kings and princes and received ................TO GET COMPLETE STUDY MATERIAL JOIN NSOU ENGLISH COACHING

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