In the Hebrew Bible, Psalms begins the third and last section of the biblical canon, known as the Writings (Hebrew Ketuvim). The poet uses words not merely to make declarations, statements of fact. is the trade name of Religious poetry—as distinct from merely devotional verse, —is poetry that springs from a true religious experience. Effective use of repetition and the piling up of synonyms and complements to fill out the picture are characteristic. Please email comments to [email protected] and join the conversation on our Facebook page. . Obviously there are … *.pdf [Acrobat] _____. Jerome writing to Paula (P.L., XXII, 442) explained that the acrostic Psalms 111 and 112 were made up of iambic trimeters. And leaves thy spirit doth still fan, A truly religious poem is not born merely of a religious purpose. This activity is prompted by a fundamentally religious intention, if the poem be written for the glory of God or for the salvation of souls. All rights reserved. Instead of rhyming successive lines of a poem, Hebrew poetry matches the thought in successive lines. They don’t look like the poetry we know. I do not necessarily mean a mystical experience. 1. synonymous – the lines express the same thought in different words: a. Psalm 3:1; 49:1; 83:14; 103:13. b. Commonweal's latest, delivered twice weekly. In Psalm 119 the same letter begins eight successive lines in each of the twenty-two alphabetic strophes. In poetry, words are charged with meaning in a far different way than are the words in a piece of scientific prose. Poetry in the Old Testament However more moderate views have recently returned to favor. Card. The words of a poem are not merely the signs of concepts: they are also rich in affective and spiritual associations. What we must seek in a poem is therefore not an accidental reference to something outside itself: we must seek this inner principle of individuality and of life which is its soul, or "form.". strains unto the farthest bounds of the world. Again, this is only discernible in the original language. When I mention that the Psalms are poetry, some may question the choice of words. The Psalter is from first to last poetry, even though it contains many prayers and not all OT prayers were poetic (see 1Ki 8:23-53; Ezr 9:6-15; Ne 9:5-37; Da 9:4-19) -- nor, for that matter, was all praise poetic (see 1Ki 8:15-21). W. W. Norton & Company. Meter and parallelism are the two chief characteristics of Hebrew poetry. In Psalms 13, 23, 62, 148 and 150 the same word or words are repeated multiple times making for balance. Pitra, Analecta Sacra, II, 341). As the Bible's best-known poetry, the Psalms have been a rich source of inspiration for meditation, song, and recitation for thousands of years. E SHOULD REMEMBERthe psalms are and were, in their initial compositions, poems—with the entirety of the Psalter (all one hundred and fifty of them) being merely a congeries of individual poems or simply a volume of verse. A good poem induces an experience that could not be produced by any other combination of words. The Bible contains 150 psalms, some short, some long. He Who is above all things is also in all things, and He is capable of manifesting Himself through them all. Being unable to dwell in poetry means you are unable to dwell in the world of the Bible because so much of the Bible is poetry. The word “Selah” often makes the end of a strophe. ed and they were created, Psalms, book of the Old Testament composed of sacred songs, or of sacred poems meant to be sung. “The search for significance is the most significant search of mankind. Read More on This Topic ing stars. alone is exalted. Tod Linafelt, "Private Poetry and Public Rhetoric: Hearing and Overhearing David's Lament for Saul and Jonathan in 2 Samuel 1," in the Journal of Religion 88:4 (2008), 497-526. The lines don’t even rhyme. Hebrew poetry is based on rhyming meter, not on rhyming sound. The lines don’t even rhyme. This means that the experience which they convey, and which the reader must try to share, is not only a poetic but a religious experience. A truly religious poem is not born merely of a religious purpose. His going forth is from one end of the heavens, and his Praise ye the Lord from the heavens, praise ye him in Let it therefore be clear, that since the inspired writer is an instrument of the Holy Spirit, Who, according to the Catholic Faith, is the true Author of the Psalms, what is revealed in the Psalter is revealed in the poetry of the Psalter and is only fully apprehended in a poetic experience that is analogous to the experience of the inspired writer. A. 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