The Art of Biblical Poetry

by Robert Alter

Book Overview

Continuing his explorations of the art of the Bible, Robert Alter provides an interpretation of the poetry of the Old Testament and an account of how biblical poetry works. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0465004318
• Release Date: June 1987
• Publisher: Basic Books
• Length: 228 Pages
• Weight: 0.56 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.0" x 0.5" x 5.5"

Customer Reviews

Alter is a brilliant guide to the Bible

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.

Great Purchase for Serious Study

Alter is beyond a good scholar. He tears apart hebrew poetry and shows you how it works. the only drawback is it is a slow process. the writing is good but difficult.

A literary approach to reading Biblical poetry

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.

This book should never be out of print

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.