Hebrew Poetry and Robert Alter
The latest book I've read
Posted
Thursday, May 18, 2006
by
Charlie Trimm
I just finished reading another book:
The Art of Biblical Poetry by Robert Alter. This is a companion volume to his previous book
The Art of Biblical Narrative. Both of these books are excellent introductions to their topic. Alter's main point is that the parallel lines of Hebrew poetry are not exactly synonomous or antithetical (per Lowth's classic formulation), but usually the second line intensifies the first. This happens through either an abstract idea becoming concrete, an expanding of an idea, or several other methods. But the second line is not simply redundant: it adds something to the first line. Alter than goes through and explores how all the various types of poetry in the OT (Psalms, Job, Proverbs, prophets, Song of Songs) use this intensification. I highly recommend this book to help understand how biblical poetry works.
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