The Husband's Message Analysis

Welcome to the land of symbols, imagery, and wordplay. Before you travel any further, please know that there may be some thorny academic terminology ahead. Never fear, Shmoop is here. Check out our...

Alliterative Half-LinesRed Alert! This analysis refers to the poem in its original language. Translations may or may not preserve the following features.OK, hold on tight, because we're about to ge...

The Messenger The identity of the speaker in "The Husband's Message" is actually kind of a literary mystery. The poem is written in a manuscript called The Exeter Book, and it comes right after 60...

"The Husband's Message" is divided between two settings – the location of the lord and that of his lady – but its purpose is to bring them together.Once upon a time, the lord and lady of "The H...

Since it's structured around alliteration, or matching first sounds of words, most Anglo-Saxon poetry, including "The Husband's Message" sounds a lot like a tongue-twister. "She sells seashells dow...

"The Husband's Message" is a title given to this poem by later scholars. Most Anglo-Saxon poems like this one are anonymous (we don't know who wrote them), and they don't have actual titles. This...

Mystery Speaker, Runes"The Husband's Message" isn't technically a riddle, but in The Exeter Book it's preceded by a series of short poems in which inanimate objects or animals ask the reader to "sa...

In Old English: (10) Everest; In translation: (5) Tree LevelIf you want to read "The Husband's Message" in its original language, Old English, get ready to hit the books. (That is, unless you're al...

"The Husband's Message" is an example of prosopopeia, a fancy Greek word to describe a type of personification in which an inanimate object speaks (source). Now, aren't you glad you learned a fancy...

GConsidering it's a love poem, you'd expect "The Husband's Message" to be at least a little bit steamy, right? Maybe something about how hot the lady is, or how the lord wants to take her in his ar...