Lyric Modes and Metaphor in The Wife’s Lament
Author ORCID Identifier
Susan Deskis: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0878-0844/a>
Publication Title
English Studies
ISSN
0013838X
E-ISSN
17444217
Document Type
Article
Abstract
Decades of analysis of The Wife’s Lament based on a presumed, underlying narrative have produced interpretations that are contradictory and competing. As a lyric poem, The Wife’s Lament is more profitably approached through its non-narrative elements, especially metaphor and intertextuality. Two major metaphors control The Wife’s Lament: “Wife as exiled retainer”—currently uncontroversial—and “Wife as seer from beyond the grave.” The latter metaphor is supported by a verbal parallel from Old Frisian and by character analogues from the Poetic Edda.
First Page
383
Last Page
398
Publication Date
5-18-2020
DOI
10.1080/0013838X.2020.1797347
Keywords
lyric, metaphor, Old English, Old Frisian, Old Norse
Recommended Citation
Deskis, Susan E., "Lyric Modes and Metaphor in The Wife’s Lament" (2020). NIU Bibliography. 122.
https://huskiecommons.lib.niu.edu/niubib/122
Department
Department of English
