Narrative Poems: The Influence of Celtic Elements
Poetic styles obviously different greatly among early European writers. These three poets represent writing that captures not only their ethnicity but also thematically what was common in their worlds. The reader will notice a harshness in the Irish poem; a sense of romanticism in the French poem and an almost depressing element in the English poem. But even with these differences, it would seem that even though each depicts the mindset of their era, that they all have an element of Celtic tradition.
This essay will contrast and compare the stylistic technique of three poems, all of which appear to have a romantic lament as the theme. I have selected The Wife's Lament to compare/contrast to Lanval and Exile of the Sons of Uisliu (referred to as Exile in this paper).
Comparisons & Contrasts
Lanval, written by Marie de France uses a historical present tense in her writing, which is more common in French literature than English. The Wife's Lament and Exile of the Sons of Uisliu both appear to begin in the present tense. A narrator tells all three, two of which seem to be the character themselves.
Lanval is written in Anglo-Saxon French which is termed as "easy" French and places the accent on the last syllable of the word. The poem also uses eight-syllabal lines...
Exile on the other hand is not writing in a rhyming style and the length of the couplets varies. The Wife's Lament, appears to be almost style-less and is often categorized as a vaguely narrative poem. There does not seem to be much structure to the story or the poem itself but rather a condensation of the character's emotional state. Perhaps as the title indicates, this was the poet's intent.
Basically, this is the story of a woman who is remembering events in her past and who is interpreting them with comments about her present circumstances. It is not an easy poem to read because without any type of rhyme, it is delivered almost as if it were a fragmented work of a longer poem. Critics tend to view this as an unfinished or incomplete poem. Suffering, separation and passive endurance seem to be the main themes. Not unlike what we find in Lanval. He endures pain, suffers separation but inflicts pain in kind, unlike the character in The Wife Laments.
Exile follows the pattern of many Irish tales and seems to be structured upon sorrow and grief and told in the third person. Most of it seems to follow some segment of Irish history coupled with fiction. The language is simple, non-rhyming and does not have a set pattern of couplets.…
