The Wanderer. The Wifes’ lament

Do not use secondary, critical sources for this paper. You may, of course, use reference material such as the OED and Abrams’ A Glossary of Literary Terms.

Craft a specific, interesting thesis for your short essay. Support you ideas about these texts with examples and quotations. 

Pick one of the following:
1.)    Notice that the setting in both poems is related to the emotional state of the speaker. What specific correlations can you draw between the speaker’s situation (consider the fictional events recounted in the poem’s present and past moments), the setting he/she describes, and the mood the poet attempts to convey in “The Wife’s Lament” and “The Wanderer”?

OR, 

2.)    What do we learn about the Anglo-Saxon culture from “The Wife’s Lament” and ‘Last Survivor Speech’ (11.2247-2270) in Beowulf? Consider discussing what cultural values are represented by the objects/things mentioned in each poem. Also, consider what each speaker ‘laments’ and what this tells us about what is valued in this society. Does gender play a role in the cultural values represented in these two texts?