demarcation between boy and man.

Earliest Anglo-Saxon Literature.--As with the Greeks and Romans, so
with the Teutons, poetry afforded the first literary outlet for the
feelings. The first productions were handed down by memory. Poetry is
easily memorized and naturally lends itself to singing and musical
accompaniment. Under such circumstances, even prose would speedily
fall into metrical form. Poetry is, furthermore, the most suitable
vehicle of expression for the emotions. The ancients, unlike modern
writers, seldom undertook to make literature unless they felt so
deeply that silence was impossible.

The Form of Anglo-Saxon Poetry.--Each line is divided Into two parts
by a major pause. Because each of these parts was often printed as a
complete line in old texts, _Beowulf_ has sometimes been called a poem
of 6368 lines, although it has but 3184.

A striking characteristic of Anglo-Saxon poetry is consonantal
alliteration; that is, the repetition of the same consonant at the
beginning of words in the same line:--

"Grendel gongan; Godes yrre baer."
Grendel going; God's anger bare.

The usual type of Anglo-Saxon poetry has two alliterations in the
first half of the line and one in the second. The lines vary
considerably in the number of syllables. The line from _Beowulf_
quoted just above has nine syllables. The following line from the same
poem has eleven:--