The author of "The Art of Biblical Narrative" provides a fresh interpretation of the poetry of the Old Testament and a lucid, original account of how biblical poetry works.
The Art of Biblical Poetry
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Library Journal
A companion volume to Alter's earlier The Art of Biblical Narrative ( LJ 8/81), this excellent book investigates both the structuresespecially parallelism, intensification, choice of detailand the effects of biblical Hebrew poetry. Not only the literary and the biblical scholar but also the relatively sophisticated general reader will profit from this clearly written book. Through many examples and through comparisons of the treatment of the same events in biblical prose and biblical poetry, Alter demonstrates how biblical authors used poetry to discover meaning: ``poetry is quintessentially the mode of expression in which the surface is the depth'' so that form and meaning are intimately united. Highly recommended. Carolyn M. Craft, English, Philosophy & Foreign Languages Dept., Longwood Coll., Farmville, Va.
Copyright 1985 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright 1985 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Review
"This book written in simple language will help...to derive the depth of meaning from the poetry in the Bible." -- Vidyajyoti Journal (Delhi), January 1998
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
35 of 36 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A literary approach to reading Biblical poetry,
By
This review is from: The Art Of Biblical Poetry (Paperback)
Alter continues here what he started in ' The Art of Biblical Narrative' and applies the techniques of literary criticism to the Biblical text. He does not discard Lowth's discovery of parallelism as the key technique of Biblical poetry but rather sharpens and intensifies the meaning of this concept. He shows the way different kind of parallelism operate in the text. He illustrates how intensification of meaning comes through repetition and variation. He closely reads some of the great Biblical poetry.
This is a wonderful work for all those who love the Bible and all those who love Poetry.
46 of 53 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
This book should never be out of print,
By A Customer
This review is from: The Art Of Biblical Poetry (Paperback)
This is one of the books that I was supposed to read for a class but didn't get around to it until now. I am halfway through this book and it is one of the most readable academic books that I've read. It is no wonder that Robert Alter has set and will set the standards by which Biblical litery criticism is judged. The Bible comes alive under his translations and his insights into the text make this old book new and exciting.
16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Alter is a brilliant guide to the Bible,
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This review is from: The Art Of Biblical Poetry (Paperback)
This companion volume to "The Art of Biblican Narrative" is equally illuminating although the subject matter is very different. Still, Alter is to my mind the deepest and most perceptive literary analyst I have ever read. His writing is not easy and I sometimes have to look up words he uses -- but he reads so closely and with such sympathy and sensitivity that his insights are often simply revelatory.
Here he examines Biblical poetry with close readings from selections of the prophets, the Song of Songs, Pslams, Proverbs and most of all Job. Some of the texts he examines were faily familiar to me. Others not so much. Biblical poetry is based on a technique called "parallelism" rather than on rhyme or meter. Parallelism splits each line into two parts and the second somehow reflects upon, amplifies, intensifies or illuminates the first. The form is quite stiff and unyielding at first sight -- yet Alter shows how in the hands of the anonymous authors whose names are mostly lost to us, it can become an instrument of tremendous power. Anyone interested in the Bible should read this.
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