The Poets' Book of Psalms: The Complete Psalter as Rendered by Twenty-Five Poets from the Sixteenth to the Twentieth Centuries

By Laurance Wieder

Book Overview

Poetry has traditionally embodied religious imagination and reflected the deepest longings, joys, and tribulations of humanity. 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.
Uniting the lyrical songs of Israel with their literary legacy, The Poets' Book of Psalms comprises renditions of the Psalms by twenty-five renowned poets from the sixteenth to the twentieth century. Poets include John Donne, Robert Burns, John Milton, Sir Philip Sidney, John Davies, Sir Thomas Wyatt, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Mary Sidney Herbert, David Rosenberg, and Laurance Wieder. The result--a complete and lyrical Psalter for the modern reader--supplies a living language alternative to existing prose translations and pious paraphrases.
The collection includes an introduction by the editor that describes the often surprising history and politics surrounding many of the poets lives and work. For easy cross-reference in meditation and prayer, the King James Version of the Psalms is also incorporated. Wieder separates The Poets' Book of Psalms into five parts in accordance with the Midrash tradition that also identifies the ten types of Psalms: glory, melody, Psalm, song, praise, prayer, blessing, thanksgiving, Hallelujah, and exultation. This Psalter can be read at random or in order without compromising the integrity and music of the poetry.
All 150 poetically interpreted Psalms speak to the three religious traditions that hold the Bible sacred--Judaism, Christianity, and Islam--and provide endless enjoyment for lovers of poetry. Bringing together the brightest poetic musings, The Poets' Book of Psalms is a unique modern alternative to existing English versions of the Bible's Psalms.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0195130588
• ISBN13: 9780195130584
• Release Date: May 1999
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Length: 336 Pages
• Weight: 1.10 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.1" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

Old Wine in New Bottles. No seams split here. Buy it Now.

Laurance Wieder, editor and author, The Poets' Book of Psalms (Oxford, New York, Oxford University Press, 1999) First published in 1995 by HarperCollins, San Francisco This is the kind of book you want to find when you are in search of quality material for `alternate' or `casual' or even `contemporary' worship services. The main body of the book contains 152 new poems, 150 of which are new treatments of the ideas expressed in the 150 Psalms in David's Psalter. Two poems are introductory, including the only one from the greatest of English Christian poets, John Donne, who wrote a poetic `appreciation' of the translation of the Psalms by Sir Philip Sidney. These poems may not work well in `contemporary' services, since the majority of poems were written in in the sixteenth to the eighteenth century. The most familiar names from this era include several of the most famous poets in English, such as Robert Burns (1 poem), Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1 poem), George Herbert (1 poem), John Milton (6 poems), Philip Sidney (10 poems), and Henry Vaughn (3 poems). There are also several poems by people whose greatest fame does not come from poesy, such as essayist and scientist, Francis Bacon (3 poems) and the Biblical translator, Miles Cloverdale (3 poems). I cannot stress too hard that none of these works are translations, even in the sense of the very loose `thought for thought' translations such as the Good News translation. These are all `new' poems inspired by the psalms. What may add confusion to this issue is that each poem begins with the same superscription you will find in the Bible. One thing this means is that one may need to exercise a bit of care when using these poems in a service, especially those written by the two poets, David Rosenberg (5 poems) and the editor, Laurance Wieder (16). What seems odd is the great gap in the dates for these two authors, and the next latest poet, P. Hately Waddell (1817--1891) who wrote 7 poems. And the only other 19th century poet is Coleridge. Thus, 121 out of 150 poems were written over 200 years ago. The editor points out that for many psalms, there was more than one poems from which to choose. For 21 psalms, especially the 23rd psalm, there were many choices. For some, the only sources were the collections of poems from psalms by the Sidneys, George Sandys, George Wither the Puritan, Christopher Smart, and P Hately Waddell (who wrote in Scots). The editor chose that poem which was the strongest, and which could best stand on its own merits. The editor also avoided anachronisms and modernized the spelling. There are no notes, but the editor took care that every word in the poems could be found in a dictionary (he doesn't say which one. I suspect it was smaller than the OED). In order that you don't need to have a copy of the Bible open to compare the poems with the psalms, all 150 psalms from the King James Version appear at the rear of the book. This is quite appropriate, as virtually all of thes

Insightful selection of paraphrases

Bearing in mind the editor's selection principles, the poems he has chosen give an insight into the psalms as a whole and into some individual psalms that is stimulating both to thought and prayer. The lesser-known poets often are particularly thought-provoking.

A Good Variation on the Good Book

The psalms are at once poetry, music, prayer, liturgy, and song. Their universal appeal comes from their capacity to express what we feel and that for which we yearn. In their original Hebrew, the psalms taken together were Israel's poetic and musical repertoire and served not only an expressive, but a sacred, purpose. In their manifest forms, the psalms give voice to the deepest human emotions and spiritual aspirations.In the "Poets' Book of Psalms," poet Laurance Wieder has tapped into the enormous poetic resonance of the psalms and produced a unique psalter, an anthology of the 150 psalms translated by twenty-five English poets from the sixteenth to the twentieth centuries. His selections are interesting. They range from the obvious -- Milton, Donne, Herbert -- to the less so -- Burns, Coleridge, Vaughan -- to the virtually unknown -- Mary Sidney Herbert, George Wither, and George Sandys.Wieder brings suitable talents to the enterprise. He is himself the author of "One Hundred Fifty Psalms," the first complete psalter written in English since Christopher Smart wrote the "Psalms of David" in 1765. He also is the co-editor of "Chapters into Verse," a magisterial two-volume anthology of poetry in English inspired by the Bible. Like anyone who knows poetry, I wondered about some of Wieder's choices. He provides a cogent answer in his Introduction by clearly enunciating his criteria for inclusion: 1. that the works stand as poetry, not just translation, 2. that the poems be without anachronisms, 3. that the version should imitate the form, not just the content, of the original, 4. that the plain be preferred to the fancy (hence the underrepresented metaphysics!), 5. that the language be accessible to modern readers, and 6. that anonymous works and versified songs be excluded. With these criteria in hand, I could understand why there were more poems by Mary than George Herbert, more by John Hall than John Milton, and only one by John Donne. A useful feature of the collection is its appendix containing The Book of Psalms from the King James (or Authorised) Version of the Bible, probably the best known psalter in English. Wieder, quite rightly in my estimation, regards these poems as having "authority but not a living person's voice." Personally, I think he might have done just as well, if not better, if he had included Miles Coverdale's translations in the Book of Common Prayer as his counterpoise. They have both authority and a living presence as poems read and spoken today.