Which sentence needs a comma? Mariah told us to go to the park without her.

You and I are going to the park without Mariah.

Mariah said that she didn't want to go.

No Mariah is not going to the park with us.

health care costs in the united states are on the rise.

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.