Why Poetry?

While I am an English major, poetry still eludes me at times. Despite this, I have decided to tackle the question, "What makes something 'poetry' rather than 'prose'?" as well as "Why is Beowulf poetry rather than prose?"

To start off with, here is an article from The Poetry Foundation that I found:
http://www.poetryfoundation.org/harriet/2012/04/the-difference-between-poetry-and-prose/

To highlight the key points that are relevant to us:

• Martin Earl - this Poetry Foundation blogger dude who says some really elusive and airy stuff (see, this is why people have issues with poetry) that sandwiches some comprehend-able stuff - states, "Poetry creates its own truth, which at times is the same truth as the world’s, and sometimes not." This, I believe, is the case with Beowulf; Beowulf is this sort of superhuman, for one thing, and this story is not exactly "historically accurate," so it is a truth - a constructed truth, not the truth. Any thoughts on this? Are there any elements within Beowulf that relate to our own "truths" today?
• Earl also states,  "In both classical and modern languages it is poetry that evolves first and is only much later followed by prose, as though in a language’s childhood, as in our own, poetry were the more efficient communicator of ideas. Whether this has to do with the nature of ideation or some characteristic intrinsic to the material evolution of tongues has never been adequately decided." This directly answers the question as to why Beowulf is written in poetry. Beowulf, clearly, falls into this category of linguistic/literary evolution. More than that, though, think about songs that tell stories, or myths and stories that have been passed along for generations - isn't there a certain simplicity of the descriptions that can also be seen in Beowulf? Lengthy and/or descriptive titles of individuals; a sense of community and a common purpose or enemy; a definitive action taken? In this way, I think "poetry" may be our most long-standing form of story-telling.

What makes Beowulf poetry? It has short lines, all that awesome alliteration...anything else? The syntax is quite poetic-y.

How would Beowulf be different were it written like a novel? A graphic novel? Are there elements to the story that might be lost or altered?

Well, I tackled the questions, but I don't know how clean or effective of a tackle it was.

Here's another meme to conclude with: