Like Wulf and Eadwacer (Text 39), The Wife's Lament is a lyric of lament sung by a female voice; and it, too, has an enigmatic and allusive narrative which defies complete elucidation. Nevertheless, in many ways The Wife's Lament fits into a pattern familiar from other OE lyrical poems. The opening declaration by the firstperson speaker of her ability to tell the true story of herself is remarkably like the opening of The Seafarer, and an inventory of key words reveals the unmistakable kinship of the poem with theOElyrics of lament, especially The Wanderer. There is the diction of sadness and mental anguish (geōmorre, 1, geōmormōd, 42, ūhtceare, 7, mōdceare, 40 and 51, brēostceare, 44), of physical hardship (yrmþa, 3, earfoþa, 39), and of exile and the landscape of exile (wræcsīþ, 5 and 38, winelēas wræcca, 10, eorðsele, 29, storme behrīmed, 48). We may deduce that the narrator is awoman exiled from her husband's tribe (which is presumably not her own), probably during his absence, though he seems to have been instrumental in forcing her to live as she does. Some sort of feud is perhaps operating and there appear to be references to hidden enmities or betrayals. The woman's lament is that of a rejected or separated lover, and perhaps another man is involved as well; that could explain the ‘very suitable man’ referred to in line 18. The density of personal reference in the poem is remarkable.