The Art of Biblical PoetryThree decades ago, renowned literary expert Robert Alter radically expanded the horizons of biblical scholarship by recasting the Bible as not only a human creation but a work of literary art deserving studied criticism. In The Art of Biblical Poetry, his companion to the seminal The Art of Biblical Narrative, Alter takes his analysis beyond narrative craft to investigate the use of Hebrew poetry in the Bible. Updated with a new preface, myriad revisions, and passages from Alter's own critically acclaimed biblical translations, The Art of Biblical Poetry is an indispensable tool for understanding the Bible and its poetry. |
Contents
From Line to Story | |
Structures of Intensification | |
Truth and Poetry in the Book of | |
Forms of Faith in Psalms | |
Prophecy and Poetry | |
The Poetry of | |
The Garden of Metaphor | |
The Life of the Tradition | |
GENERAL INDEX | |
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Common terms and phrases
anaphora ancient antithesis beginning Bible biblical poems biblical poetry biblical verse Book of Job Chapter climactic concluding concrete context conventional cosmic creation darkness discourse divine earth effect elaboration elsewhere enemies evocation figurative language focusing formal formulaic genre God’s heavens Hebrew Hebrew Bible heightening hippopotamus human hyperbole imagery imagination incremental repetition initial instance interlinear introduced invoked Isaiah Israel Jael Jehoiakim Job’s king Lamech literal literary look LORD LORD’s lover man’s Masoretic text meaning metaphor metonymic monitory moral movement narrative oneline pattern perception perhaps poem’s poet poetic prophetic poetry prose Proverbs Psalms R. B. Y. Scott readers reference rhetorical second verset semantic parallelism sense sequence Sheol simile Sisera Song of Songs speaker specification speech stress strophe suggest synonymity syntactic temporal term thematic third verset translation triadic line Ugaritic verb verset of line vision wicked Wisdom woman womb words Zion