Painting In Beowulf

“Painting is poetry that is seen rather than felt, and poetry is painting that is felt rather than seen.” ― Leonardo da Vinci. There is an art in writing poetry, for you must embed meaning within it while not just blatantly writing the message. In poetry there are many different ways of doing this, so it is up to the poet’s stylistic choice how to deliver these messages. Seamus Heaney, in translating the poem Beowulf from it’s original dialect is able to use stylistic choice to bring out different meaning and messages from the poem. Seamus Heaney’s translation of the poem Beowulf accentuates underlying messages, painting vivid pictures in the reader’s mind through the use of sense of place, while also highlighting the brutality of the ancient
Heaney is able to, by using powerful words like “gleaming” and “girdled” along with interesting metaphors, paint a vivid picture of the scene and setting. This quote also gives insight to the fact that the characters in the poem are christian rather than pagan, though in reality outside of the poem, they are pagan. The translation and use of sense of place also gives insight to the strong focus on religion in ancient times, as Heaney refers to “The almighty”, writing how wonderful the earth he created was. Overall, Heaney’s use of sense of place enhances the poem by highlighting important messages and cultural values in the ancient society that may not have been obvious in the original text, while also creating an intricate setting with vivid
When describing the gruesome battle between a man and Grendel, Heaney uses sense of place to amplify the idea of violence and mercilessness in the ancient world, writing “He grabbed and mauled a man on his bench, bit into his bore-lappings, bolted down his blood and gorged on him in lumps, leaving the body utterly lifeless, eaten up hand and foot” (Heaney ln 739-744). Heaney, in using words like “gorged” and “mauled” in his translation, is able to bring about the idea of viciousness in the the ancient world. His usage of sense of place enables him to exaggerate this message and convey it to the reader in a more effective way. Heaney is also trying to make the distinction between modern day violence and ancient violence. He wants to convey that in the ancient world, killing someone was not enough. They needed to be torchered like Grendel did to the man in the previous quote, which is very different from modern day violence where people don’t take the time to be ruthless, rather, they do it in as quick a manner as possible. Heaney is able to capture the relentlessness and the sheer cruelty of violence in the ancient world through his strategic word choice and stylistic use of sense of