"It is not easy to sum up what biblical poetry is. More than just a set of formal features or structures, poetry is sound and vision compressed for intensity and expressed with potency. Biblical poetry struggles to probe and stretch the important cultural concepts and issues of ancient Israel in exquisitely distilled Hebrew. In that sense, it is the purest, most rarefied, expression of biblical thought." (JSB, p. 2104)
Biblical Poetry Literary Terms
- "Stitchography": A common visual marker of biblical poetry characterized by a break from large blocks of texts into smaller bricks (small brick above small brick or large brick above large brick). Examples: Exod. ch 15, Deut. ch 32, Judg. ch 5, 2 Sam. ch 22. (JSB, p. 2097)
- Parallelism: The pairing of a line (or part of a line) with one or more lines that are in some way linguistically equivalent. One common form of parallelism is when two verses (though sometimes 3 or 4) share the same syntactical structure. (JSB, p. 2098) Other forms of parallelism may be rhythmic (when the number of accented syllables are parallel in each verset / line) or semantic (when a word or phrase in one verset, e.g. "give ear" is parallel in meaning to the next, e.g. "hear"). (Robert Alter, The Characteristics of Ancient Hebrew Poetry, p. 612)
- Repetition: The recurrence of certain words or sounds that enhance and strengthen the poet’s message. (JSB, p. 2101)
- Metaphor, Simile, and Imagery: A common poetic devise used to add more emphasis and style to the poet's message through pairing of literal and non-literal meanings. For example: Deut. 32:2: May my teachings drop like rain / My speech condense like the dew; like gentle rain on grass / Like showers on new growth.
- Meter and Terseness: “If biblical poetry has a metrical system, it has been eluding us for 2,000 years.” (JSB, p. 2099) While biblical poetry does not have a strong meter or consistent rhythm to its rhyme, it is often characterized by short, terse verses and may include rhythmic parallelism.
Berlin, Adele, and Marc Zvi. Brettler. “Reading Biblical Poetry.” The Jewish Study Bible, Oxford University Press, 2004, pp. 2097–2104.
Alter, Robert, and Frank Kermode. “The Characteristics of Ancient Hebrew Poetry.” The Literary Guide to the Bible, The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1987, p. 612.
דברים לב:ז-אב
ז: זְכֹר֙ יְמ֣וֹת עוֹלָ֔ם בִּ֖ינוּ שְׁנ֣וֹת דּוֹר־וָד֑וֹר
שְׁאַ֤ל אָבִ֙יךָ֙ וְיַגֵּ֔דְךָ זְקֵנֶ֖יךָ וְיֹ֥אמְרוּ לָֽךְ
ח: בְּהַנְחֵ֤ל עֶלְיוֹן֙ גּוֹיִ֔ם בְּהַפְרִיד֖וֹ בְּנֵ֣י אָדָ֑ם
יַצֵּב֙ גְּבֻלֹ֣ת עַמִּ֔ים לְמִסְפַּ֖ר בְּנֵ֥י יִשְׂרָאֵֽל׃
ט: כִּ֛י חֵ֥לֶק יְהֹוָ֖ה עַמּ֑וֹ יַעֲקֹ֖ב חֶ֥בֶל נַחֲלָתֽוֹ׃
י: יִמְצָאֵ֙הוּ֙ בְּאֶ֣רֶץ מִדְבָּ֔ר וּבְתֹ֖הוּ יְלֵ֣ל יְשִׁמֹ֑ן
יְסֹֽבְבֶ֙נְהוּ֙ יְב֣וֹנְנֵ֔הוּ יִצְּרֶ֖נְהוּ כְּאִישׁ֥וֹן עֵינֽוֹ׃
יא: כְּנֶ֙שֶׁר֙ יָעִ֣יר קִנּ֔וֹ עַל־גּוֹזָלָ֖יו יְרַחֵ֑ף
יִפְרֹ֤שׂ כְּנָפָיו֙ יִקָּחֵ֔הוּ יִשָּׂאֵ֖הוּ עַל־אֶבְרָתֽוֹ׃
יב: יְהוָ֖ה בָּדָ֣ד יַנְחֶ֑נּוּ וְאֵ֥ין עִמּ֖וֹ אֵ֥ל נֵכָֽר׃
Chevruta Literary Analysis Activity
Deut. 32: 7-12
7. Remember the days of old
Consider the years of ages past;
Ask your father, he will inform you
Your elders, they will tell you
8. When the Most High gave nations their homes
And set the divisions of man,
He fixed the boundaries of peoples
In relation to Israel’s numbers.
9. For the LORD’s portion is His people,
Jacob His own allotment.
10. He found him in a desert region,
In an empty howling waste.
He engirded him, watched over him,
Guarded him as the pupil of His eye.
11. Like an eagle who rouses his nestlings,
Gliding down to his young,
So did He spread His wings and take
him, Bear him along on His pinions;
12. The LORD alone did guide him,
No alien god at His side.
Details turn skeletons into photographs
And photographs into human beings
This is what poetry
Is supposed to do
This is the reward for being
The most vulnerable people
In the world
Get naked in front of everyone,
Tell them a few things about yourself
And suddenly they know you
Better than anybody.
You aren’t just a thing anymore.
Poets die all the time.
Then we live forever.
-
The Assassin and The Giant Man by Sam Teitel
Moving into the Meta...
Why Moshe? Why now? Why poetry?
“The identification of biblical poetry and what constitutes poetry in the Bible has been a vexing issue since early post-biblical times. Each generation of scholars applied its own criteria, usually drawn from its own vernacular poetry...but none of these fit biblical poetry - Adele Berlin, JSB, p. 2097