the speaker of the poem is evidently separated from her lover and/or husband, wulf, both symbolically and materially ("wulf is on iege, | ic on oþerre"), and this separation is seemingly maintained by threat of violence ("willað hy hine aþecgan, | gif he on þreat cymeð"), possibly by her own people ("leodum is minum | swylce him mon lac gife"). crying out in her sorrow for her lover, she longs for him to take her in his arms ("þonne mec se beaducafa bogum bilegde"). she finds comfort in his coming, but it is also bittersweet ("wæs me wyn to þon, wæs me hwæþre eac lað"). she then addresses 'eadwacer', who may be her husband or her captor, and she appears to identify their 'whelp' ("uncerne earne hwelp"), generally understood to metaphorically imply 'child' and possibly a reference to the child's being the 'whelp' of a man named 'wulf'. she describes this child as being taken off 'to the woods' ("to wuda").