The Wife's Lament Key Facts

• Title: The Wife’s Lament
• Poet: Anonymous
• [The poem The Wife’s Lament is a first-person monologue by a wife who shares her sorrowful story of exile and separation from her husband.]
• Manuscript Source: Preserved in the Exeter Book, a 10th-century anthology of Old English poetry
• Lines: 53 lines
• Genre: Elegy in the manner of the German frauenlied, or "women's song"