Stylistic Analysis Of Beowulf Epic

Throughout history, poems and epics would serve as portals to the past and narrators of famous tales. With different techniques and styles, the poets would transform simple stories into fantasies that would affect the audiences in a special way. Dictated from the tones of his vocalizations, a powerful reverberation would sink into the souls of the poets listeners, leaving them in an adsorbed state. The epic was a genre of the past . Nowadays with the discourse of our time dictated by the academic institutes and the media, the world has been robbed of the rich poetic traditions of our ancestors. Information is transmitted from the news to our brains in an abrupt, undescriptive fashion. No feeling nor receptivity is brought by the delivering

When analyzing other revered epics, one may note that the same clause is used in the opening of the poems. Being that Beowulf was an orally transmitted epic, the emphasis of which it declared in every syllable, commanded the auditor in unique fashions to change internally. The epic also has a style of its own. Unlike the typical decoration of rhyming words in poems, Beowulf uses alliteration. Almost every line is constructed with the beginning of the statements identical in its lettering. Additionally the poem is composed of harsh short words, adding to the sense of command. Together these two styles form the epics poetic structure. “We have listened to many a lay” continues the narrator, reminding his audience of the many instances in which this legend was told before. This statement also adds foreshadow to the stanza, basically informing the listener that what was about to be described was unlike anything the auditors had heard previously. Proceeding with the introduction, the writer mentions the people of whom he alluded to in the beginning lines; The glory of the peoples ancestors and the “martial deeds” of which they completed. A hero is described next. Scyld is actually not the victor of the epic, but rather is a character synonymous to Beowulf in his development. Starting as a “foundling, feeble and wretched”, Scyld grows up to

If the beginning paragraph is weak and uninteresting, the reader automatically assumes that the following pages will be the same. The mysterious introduction of Beowulf hints about the future without even mentioning any of the characters in the story. Scyld plays no part in the legend of Beowulf, yet the introduction of Scyld is exact and perfect on the point of describing our hero. When listening to the vague description of Scyld, the auditor will enquire about the subtle aspects of Beowulf’s character and long to hear more. Simply put, the epic Beowulf is a mastery of the poetic cultures of the past, and it will continue to capture the audiences and influence the modern generations. For verily this paper is merely the introduction to the full analysis of the poem, and will serve as the foundation by which the castle of literary genius may be formed