Beowulf is described as an 'epic poem'.
I've never read an epic poem before, so this observation may largely be due to a lack of experience in the genre, but when I read the story, I really don't see what makes it a poem. I mean, obviously there are line breaks, but it feels to me like it's really just prose with the line breaks added in. If you read it out loud to someone, I really think they'd hear a story and not a poem, regardless of how you tried to phrase the lines to fit the meter.
And just in case this comes up in a comment, I know that poetry doesn't have to rhyme or follow common conventional techniques that we've been learning up to this point - but it seems to have just about nothing that I've become used to seeing in poems by this point in my life - meter, rhyme (when called for), symbolism (we noted how there wasn't much of it in class), alliteration, etc.. I dunno, it doesn't feel like a poem to me.
edit: this is matt s, forgot to change my name for this one.
2 comments:
matt, keep in mind that this poem wasn't written the way that we are reading it. the original version was written in old english and can be found on the left side of the book (in case your wondering). if you read that side i think you would think of it more as a poem; but i can't be sure because i can't read or understand old english. the poem may sound like a story to you becuase that may be how Seamus Heaney wanted it to sound.
Keep in mind that epic poetry is sort of a subcategory of narrative poetry - a style that tells a story. Also, as Jeff implied, the rhyme, alliteration, and rythym could all be in the actual old english version of the poem. Since it's translated, obviously there are going to be words added in and words taken out to make it sound normal, therefore the original poetic characteristics of it may have been overlapped. Those characteristics could have also been overlapped or erased because, dont forget, the poem was created some 300 years before it was written down. So it could have very much resembled a poem when it was created, but time went on, lines were forgotten and added, and words could have been changed. And about the symbolism, (I think we said this in class), all of the story could be symbolic but we just don't know it. Grendel could be a symbol of struggle and the corruption of mankind. The hall of heorot could be a symbol for humans overcoming struggles and making their mark in history. Back when the poem was created, the original author of it may have intended the poem to be sort of a symbol or indication of what society was like at the time.
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