For starters, Old English has a very unique sound. It's guttural and percussive, and very distinctive. Just listen to this reading of "The Wife's Lament," and you'll see what we mean.
Old English poetry is also quite unique. Alliteration, a staple of Old English poetry, features heavily in "The Wife's Lament." Alliterative phrases like "wineleas wræcca" (11), "feorres folclondes" (47), "micle modceare (51), and "wynlicran wic" (52), pepper the original text, contributing to the distinctive rhythm and flow typical of the style.
Every once in a while you can even pick out an Old English word that survived the transition to modern English. "Under" and "storme" (48) are just a couple. Say, that reminds us… it's time for a quick linguistic lesson!
Let's take the word "frynd" (33), the Old English word for, well, you know: "friend." The Latin word for friend, however, is "amicum." You'll recognize that root if you speak any Spanish (amigo), French (ami), or Italian (amico). As a result of the Norman Conquest in 1066, when the French-speaking Normans popped over the channel and knocked out the Old English-speaking Anglo-Saxons, Old English would develop into a new, more modern form of English with a distinct Romance influence. Some of these more guttural-sounding Germanic-rooted Old English words, like "friend," survived, but many were quickly replaced by their Franco-Latin equivalents. In a nutshell, that's pretty much how modern English was born. That's also why the English we speak today looks and soundly only vaguely like the language here in "The Wife's Lament."