![]() ![]() Geller 1993, additionally, is an excellent resource. Recent short introductory survey articles, such as Berlin 1996 and Dobbs-Allsopp 2009, offer concise evaluations of the current state of the conversation. In quite a different vein, although written at about the same time, O’Connor 1997 (originally published in 1980) presents a minute syntactic description of Hebrew poetry that has been met with mixed reviews, in part due to its demanding nature, though for the patient reader, the book contains many insights. Perhaps most notable among these general treatments are Kugel 1998 (originally published in 1981 see Parallelism) and Alter 1985, both of which monographs set the table for the contemporary discussion. Alonso Schökel 1988 was a pioneering work, and Alonso Schökel’s treatment of the creative aspects of Hebrew poetry merits further engagement. There are a plethora of good, recent short treatments of biblical poetry, though many of the more substantive surveys are now several decades old. As poetry, it demands to be read within the larger discipline of literary studies. As with other bodies of poetry, it routinely involves higher concentrations of words and phrases with rare meanings or usages, bold ellipses, sudden transitions, and other stylistic complexity. This particularly lean style is characterized by short lines, consisting of only two to six words per line, lending the impression of a heightened, dense form of discourse, achieved by bringing semantically important words together. Briefly defined, biblical Hebrew poetry is a nonmetrical form of verse characterized above all by verbal inventiveness, a discernible poetic diction and texture, and concision. These were largely recognized as verse early on in the tradition much later, Robert Lowth’s Lectures on the Sacred Poetry of the Hebrews ( Lowth 1995b, cited under Robert Lowth) showed that much of the Latter Prophets are also verse. This includes the books of Job, Proverbs, and Psalms, and the several festival songs embedded in prose texts (Exodus 15, Deuteronomy 32, Judges 5, 2 Samuel 22) Lamentations and Song of Songs and other poems or fragments embedded within blocks of prose (e.g., Genesis 4:23–24). ![]() Roughly a third of the Hebrew Bible is verse. The poetry of the Hebrew Bible makes up a central part of the scriptural heritage of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam and has been a foundational source for poetry throughout history, and especially for later traditions of Hebrew verse. ![]()
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