Definition of Alliterative Verse

The Anglo-Saxon poem, Beowulf, was originally told orally then later was written down anonymously in the Old English language. It is not known who or whom wrote this poem down. What we do know is that Beowulf is the oldest surviving epic poem of the English language; the original has suffered irreparable damage in a fire. “The poem dates back to 1000 AD”

Anglo-Saxon literature often expressed concepts of survival, battle, exile, male dominance in society, and loyalty to the lord. These aspects are strongly represented in both “The Wanderer” and “The Wife’s Lament”. Both elegies deliver themes of self-exile and the mourning of lost companions. Ideas of longing and alienation are present in these two Anglo-Saxon poems through use of figurative language, structure, point of view, comparison, and various other literary techniques.

In Anglo-Saxon works of literature, alliterations are used with stresses to organize poems and to create a certain flow. There are certain patterns that can be seen in the lines of poems, often containing four stressed words with three of the word being alliterative and a caesura separating the four stresses words in half. A simple example of this would be in line 94 of “The Wanderer” stating, “Alas bright beaker! Alas burnished warrior!” The audience can almost feel the rhythm of the poem as they read it or hear it told out loud. Having this structure in a poem also works with the language and how it is spoken. It is hard to hear these patterns in translated versions due to other language influences in the English we speak today. When I heard the original version of “The Wanderer” spoken in Old English, the stressed words really stood out to me and the alliterative words were clear. Listening to the mixture of the Old English language and the alliterative and stressed lines I can feel the way the character in the stories feel. In the first few lines of “The Wife’s Lament”

First, references to the bible are one way that Anglo-Saxons followed Christianity, while they had a hard time letting go of the Pagan beliefs. One of the first Christian aspects in the story is referring to how God created the earth. Furthermore, "The Almighty created the earth, creating all the beautiful landscapes that is marked off by the waters, and lighted by the moon and sun"(The Monster Grendel from Beowulf Translated by Burton Raffel the Monster Grendel 1). Furthermore, in this quote the author portrays how the Almighty created the earth and how he gave life to everything in the world. This quote is reminding us of the religious aspect of the poem because it is a Christian viewpoint, only about Pagans. In

5. An article titled “the Free Verse Spectrum,” by Eleanor Berry, which appeared in the continuously paginated journal College English, volume 59, in December 1997, on pages 873-897.

A word that follows another word with the same consonant sounds is alliteration. Alliteration is used quite often in poetry as it helps create a certain tone or mood for a poem. Words that use alliteration are effective as it uses sound to bring focus to specific parts of a poem that are vital in making an idea or an emotion known. The use of alliteration is very clever as it is a simple trick authors use to grab a reader’s attention and help readers understand what they are trying to say. Edgar Allen Poe uses alliteration quite often in his poem “The Raven” to create a somber and ominous mood. Poe uses phrases like “weak and weary” and “doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before” to emphasize the darkness of the poem. The alliteration used also gives readers a sense that nothing good will come at the end of “The Raven” as the phrases that use alliteration are dreary and unwelcoming.

Metaphor, (stated or implied or extended) (balcony scene): But soft! What light through yonder window breaks? (Rom. 2. 2. 2). This is a stated metaphor because Romeo is comparing Juliet to the sun without using “like” or “as”.

The Old English, or Anglo-Saxon, era of England lasted from about 450-1066 A.D. The tribes from Germany that conquered Britain in the fifth century carried with them both the Old English language and a detailed poetic tradition. The tradition included alliteration, stressed and unstressed syllables, but more importantly, the poetry was usually mournful, reflecting on suffering and loss.1These sorrowful poems from the Anglo Saxon time period are mimetic to the Anglo-Saxons themselves; they reflect the often burdened and miserable lives and times of the people who created them. The Anglo-Saxon poems, “The Wanderer,” “The Seafarer,” and “The Wife’s Lament,”

Every culture has its own set of values, beliefs, and customs. These values, beliefs and customs create each unique culture, and these cultural constructions are directly and indirectly acquired throughout the lifetime of the culture. A major part of culture is literature; the literature of the time reflects upon daily life and society during the time that the story was composed. Beowulf, an epic poem, is one of the most important and only works of Anglo-Saxon literature. Much like a fable, the epic poem of Beowulf had lessons that taught the people within this society how to behave. This essay will outline how the importance of Christianity and the Germanic Heroic Code in Beowulf are revealed throughout the epic poem as important aspects of the Anglo-Saxon culture as a whole.

During the Anglo-Saxon time period, individuals wrote poems about achievements, deaths, emotions, and adventures taken by certain individuals. There were many popular poems during this era including, “Beowulf” translated by Burton Raffer and “The Wanderer” translated by Charles W. Kennedy. Although both these poems were written during this era, “Beowulf” was an epic poem and “The Wanderer” was an elegiac poem. However, both of these pieces shared certain characteristics related to the culture and values of the Anglo-Saxon culture. Many attributes that make up this culture are related to both Pagan and Christian beliefs. This includes many ideals relating to fate and God. The culture and values of Anglo-Saxons through “Beowulf” and “The Wanderer”, suggest that along one’s quest emerges an individuals outlook on ways of life.

Little writing remains to be studied because England was still developing their written language during many of these years, and storytelling was generally in the oral tradition. The two types of poetry that was written during the time period was heroic poetry and Christian poetry. Only about 30,000 lines of poetry from the age have survived to this time, and the epic poem "Beowulf" makes up a large portion of that (Irvin, Vacca, Probst, Beers, p.47). It originated as a pagan saga transmitted orally from one

The Anglo-Saxon poem “Beowulf” takes the reader back into a time long past; one of family, fate, and fealty. Beowulf offers a glimpse of a society struggling between two different paths, one path being the assimilation into the new Christian traditions and the other is the fast fading past of glorified warriors and family ties. In the poem, the reader can see the attempts of the poet to convey the values and stories of Judeo-Christianity in a society of Anglo-Saxon paganism. The poet illustrates the infiltration of the Christian teachings and how they might have appeared within the lives of the people through the literary devices of symbolism, allegory, and allusion.

The poem of Beowulf is one of the earliest recorded pieces of literature in history, written at an estimated time of around 1000 A.D. and set in the pagan world of sixth-century Scandinavia. Disregarding the poem’s age, the writing uses many of the same literary devices people use modern day-- such as kennings, alliteration, and caesura. Kennings are compound expressions used in Anglo-Saxon writings that have a metaphorical meaning. For example, the word sea-traveler could be used to describe a boat. Alliteration is when there is a repetition of words that start with the same letter. Caesura is a type of verse unique to Anglo-Saxon, Greek, and Latin literature that breaks the text into two with each side sharing a similar number of syllables to create an intense, ominous tone of rhythmic sound. With the use of these three devices, pictures are painted in the minds of readers, and characters are both directly and indirectly developed to enhance the story. Often in this epic poem, courage is expanded upon and interpreted in different ways with the use of these tactics.

English went on a long and vigorous adventure to have become the vast language that we know, speak and read today. In this essay, the differences and similarities between Old English and Modern English will be discussed by referring to an extract of Matthew 2: 4-10 from The Gospel of Saint Matthew in West Saxon: edited from the manuscripts by James Wilson Bright (1910:5-6). In the discussion there will be referred to the differences and similarities in orthography, spelling, vocabulary and syntax. Conclusions will also be made about the nature of these chances as they occurred in the adventure from Old English to Modern English.

The issues inherent in authorizing medieval manuscripts occur because the text has crossed hundreds of years and who knows how many hands. Since medieval times, the notion of the author has changed. Plus, manuscripts were subject to the idiosyncrasies of the copyist who sometimes subjected their reproductions to “errors of commission and omission” (Grant 51). Likewise, translators make choices about how to best translate the text in order to be faithful to the original, but also compelling to a contemporary audience. These matters create textual instability and can be further explored through examining the epic Anglo-Saxon poem, Beowolf.