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
| 3 | |
From Line to Story | 27 |
Structures of Intensification | 62 |
Truth and Poetry in the Book of Job | 85 |
Forms of Faith in Psalms | 111 |
Prophecy and Poetry | 137 |
The Poetry of Wit | 163 |
The Garden of Metaphor | 185 |
The Life of the Tradition | 204 |
NOTES | 215 |
| 220 | |
| 227 | |
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Common terms and phrases
action anaphora ancient antithesis beasts beginning Bible biblical poems biblical poetry biblical verse Book of Job Chapter concluding concrete context conventional cosmic creation darkness discourse divine earth effect elaboration elsewhere enemies evocation eyes figurative language focusing formal formulaic frame-story genre God's heaven Hebrew Hebrew Bible heightening hippopotamus human hyperbole imagery imagine incremental repetition initial instance intensification introduced invoked Isaiah Israel Jael Jehoiakim Job's kind king Lamech literal literary look Lord lover meaning metaphor metonymic moral move movement narrative pattern perception perhaps poet poetic prophetic poetry prose Proverbs Psalms R. B. Y. Scott readers reference second verset semantic parallelism sense sequence Sheol simile Sisera Song of Songs speaker specification speech stress strophe suggest synonymity syntactic tent peg term thematic third verset translation triadic line turn Ugaritic verb verset of line vision wicked wisdom woman womb words Zion