Is sound effects a stage direction

each morning i wrote my name

on the dusty cabinet, then crossed

the dining table in script, scrawled

in capitals on the backs of chairs,

practicing signatures like scales

while mother followed squirting

linseed from a burping can

beowulf is filled with alliterations, caesuras, and kennings intended both to give the epic a musical, rhythmic quality and to assist the bard performing the epic in remembering the lines. just as the lyrics to our favorite songs are easier to remember than a context-free list of names or census data, poetic devices like those listed above stick in the bard's mind.

it is not known if beowulf was chanted, sung, or recited more like a modern day poem, but the poetic devices evident in the epic almost certainly had their origin in memorization and oral recitation.