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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 14 October 2022
Genre, parallelism and canonical shaping have long been important to Psalms studies. Scholarly advances on these fronts are easily observed. Instead of working the same ground once more, this article sets off on a different path. It aims to read Hebrew poetry, especially the Psalter, with poets. It intends to listen carefully to three influential voices: George Herbert (1593–1633), R. S. Thomas (1913–2000) and Malcolm Guite (1957–). These poets help shape our imagination and prepare us to read the Psalms as poetry. Specifically, this results in sounds, repetitions, the constraining and freeing possibilities of forms, and theological themes taking centre stage in experiencing the poetry of Psalms.
1 E.g. claims, Crenshaw ‘Modern study of Psalms owes more to the insights of Hermann Gunkel (1862–1932) than to any other scholar’. Crenshaw, James L., The Psalms: An Introduction (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans, 2001), p. 80Google Scholar.
2 Jacobson and Jacobson introduce and explicate the poetry of Psalms almost exclusively by way of parallelism. Jacobson, Rolf A. and Jacobson, Karl N., Invitation to the Psalms: A Reader's Guide for Discovery and Engagement (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2013), pp. 9–20Google Scholar.
3 I limit myself here to literature on Psalms, and not Hebrew poetry writ large, for two reasons. First, this literature, particularly introductions to Psalms, gives us a clearer picture of what scholars consider as the main features of the poetry of Psalms. Second, I have begun to anticipate less familiarity with key scholarship on Hebrew poetry among those in biblical studies and beyond. In a previous article I introduced my topic by quoting Robert Alter. An anonymous reviewer suggested I remove the quotation and replace it with a commentator, as the reviewer was unaware of the work of Alter on poetry. So, in such reality (however frustrating), I will not discuss the finer points in the excellent scholarship of Geller, Watson, Alter, Berlin, O'Connor and Dobbs-Allsopp, but rather keep the conversation within Psalms scholarship only.
4 Dobbs-Allsopp, F. W., ‘Poetry of the Psalms’, in The Oxford Handbook on the Psalms (Oxford: OUP, 2014), p. 80Google Scholar. Though cf. Creach, Jerome, Discovering Psalms: Content, Interpretation, Reception (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans, 2020), p. 28Google Scholar.
5 In The Bible as Literature, for example, the authors dedicate their discussion of poetry solely to the tradition of Lowth, by which they have in mind parallelism (see Gabel, Johan, Wheeler, Charles and York, Anthony, The Bible as Literature: An Introduction, 3rd edn (Oxford: OUP, 1996), p. 42Google Scholar). For a richer reading of Lowth in contrast to much of the history of reception, see Dobbs-Allsopp, F. W., On Biblical Poetry (Oxford: OUP, 2015)CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Cf. Holmstedt, Robert, ‘Hebrew Poetry and the Appositive Style: Parallelism, Requiescat in pace’, Vetus Testamentum 69 (2019), pp. 617–48CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
6 The following is a list of scholars who introduce the poetry of Psalms with near exclusivity to parallelism: Jacobson and Jacobson, Invitation to the Psalms; Creach, Discovering Psalms; Mark Futato, Interpreting the Psalms: An Exegetical Handbook (Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Academic, 2007); C. Hassell Bullock, An Introduction to the Old Testament: Poetic Books (Chicago: Moody, 1988); Crenshaw, The Psalms; Bellinger, W. H., Psalms: A Guide to Studying the Psalter, 2nd edn (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2012)Google Scholar. This is not to say that they are unaware of the other features of poetry. Their choice of presentation is nevertheless telling.
7 The idea of metre in Hebrew poetry has on the whole been a closed case (see esp. Dobbs-Allsopp, On Biblical Poetry). Though to belabour the point once more, see Martin, Michael W., ‘Does Ancient Hebrew Poetry Have Meter?’ Journal of Biblical Literature 140 (2021), pp. 503–29CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
8 It must be said, however, that Thomas’ ‘successes are only barely audible in the United States’. Triggs, Jeffery Alan, ‘Halo upon the Bones: R.S. Thomas's Journey to the Interior’, The Literary Review 32 (1989), p. 141Google Scholar.
9 Wilcox calls Herbert's biblical inspiration ‘subterranean’ and ‘hidden . . . deep within the workings of the text’ (Helen Wilcox, The English Poems of George Herbert (Cambridge: CUP, 2007), p. xxvii). Herbert e.g. ‘reveals his indebtedness to David the poet at the same time that he realizes his intention to write beautiful poems of his own’ (ibid.). Herbert does write ‘as if he were a psalmist’ (Alastair G. Hunter, An Introduction to the Psalms [London: T&T Clark, 2008), p. 69). In fact, David Jeffrey finds Herbert's poetry a commentary on ‘the totum integrum of the Word of God’: Scripture and the English Poetic Imagination (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2019), p. 125. Cf. Chana Bloch, Spelling the Word: George Herbert and the Bible (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1985). On Guite's clear use of scripture in his poetry, see David's Crown: Sounding the Psalms (Norwich: Canterbury Press, 2021).
10 Futato e.g. defines Hebrew poetry as parallel and imaged, in contrast to the rhymed and metred English poetry, stating flatly that rhyme ‘is not a feature of Hebrew poetry’ (Psalms, pp. 24–5). Similarly, Bellinger begins his presentation of poetry of the Psalter by comparing the rhyme of English and the parallelism of Hebrew (Bellinger, Psalms, p. 12). However, he does rightly observe ‘repetition, alliteration, and assonance’ in the Psalms, though these are not at all regarded as primary (ibid., p. 14).
11 E.g. I may agree with Grant, who writes, ‘psalms do not rhyme in Hebrew (at least not often). While rhyme is often found in English-language poetry, the key dynamic of Hebrew poetry is parallelism.’ This unfortunately juxtaposes rhyme (as if it were the key feature of English poetry) with parallelism. David Firth and Jamie Grant, Words and the Word: Explorations in Biblical Interpretation and Literary Theory (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2009), p. 212.
12 The poet and critic Robert Pinsky states that it ‘is the nature of poetry to emphasize constantly that the physical sounds of words come from a particular body, one at a time, in a certain order’. Robert Pinsky, ‘Responsibilities of the Poet’, Critical Inquiry 13 (1987), p. 422.
13 See Ethan C. Jones, ‘Sound and Meaning in the Hebrew Bible: Implications for Exegesis’, Journal of Northwest Semitic Languages 47 (2021), pp. 19–36, and the literature cited therein.
14 From his Comment magazine interview, https://www.cardus.ca/comment/article/from-imagination-to-incarnation/.
15 Malcolm Guite, ‘Whoever Welcomes’, in Parable and Paradox: Sonnets on the Sayings of Jesus and Other Poems (Norwich: Canterbury Press, 2016), p. 37, ll. 1–3; emphasis added.
16 There are certainly more sounds doing work here; the consonance ‘l’ and end rhyme are just two examples.
17 Malcolm Guite, ‘First and Last’, in Parable and Paradox, p. 72, ll. 9–14; emphasis added.
18 Malcolm Guite, ‘Reversed Thunder’, in After Prayer: New Sonnets and Other Poems (Norwich: Canterbury Press, 2019), p. 12, ll. 1–4, 13–14. Notably, this poem is inspired by one image from George Herbert's famous ‘Prayer (I)’. See George Herbert, The Complete Poetry, ed. John Drury and Victoria Moul (Milton Keynes: Penguin Random House UK, 2015), pp. 48–9.
19 Dobbs-Allsopp, On Biblical Poetry, p. 150.
20 Pss 22:5a; 52:8; 128:5, 6; 131:1a, 2c, 2d; 142:7a, 7c, 8a; 143:10c, 11b.
21 That is, p and d in transliteration, respectively.
22 Heh appears as h and yod as î and y in transliteration.
23 Tav is t, and mem is m.
24 In transliteration as y, ê and î.
25 The transliteration of these is q and š, respectively.
26 That is, p and l in transliteration.
27 George Herbert, ‘The Banquet’, in The Complete Poetry, pp. 173–4; emphasis added.
28 See also Pss 120 (what), 123 (eyes of), 124 (if / then), 126 (return / exiles), 127 (unless / then), 134 (bless), 139 (O Yhwh), 148–50 (praise Yhwh).
29 See also Guite's own poem as reflection on Ps 29. Malcolm Guite, ‘Psalm 29: XXIX Afferte Domino’, in David's Crown, p. 29.
30 A particularly beautiful illustration is ‘Easter-wings’. See Herbert, The Complete Poetry, p. 46.
31 Malcolm Guite, Sounding in Seasons: Seventy Sonnets for the Christian Year (Norwich, Canterbury Press, 2012), p. xi.
32 Don Paterson, 101 Sonnets from Shakespeare to Heaney (London: Faber & Faber, 1999), p. xiii; quoted in Guite, Sounding the Seasons, p. xii.
33 Guite, After Prayer, p. 17.
34 Other forms of the sonnet are Occitan, Spenserian and Shakespearean.
35 Guite, After Prayer, p. 53, ll. 5–8.
36 For Herbert's use of turns, Wilcox observes a key one in ‘The Holdfast’. See Wilcox, The English Poems of George Herbert, p. xxix.
37 Guite, Sounding the Seasons, p. xii. Elizabeth Clarke notes that ‘Some shifts of mood or perspective are enshrined within the disciplines of form itself’, namely, the sonnet. Clarke also highlights the ability of the last couplet to reverse the previous twelve lines, seen most effectively seen in Herbert's ‘Sinne (i)’. Elizabeth Clarke, Theory and Theology in George Herbert's Poetry: ‘Divinitie, and Poesie, Met’ (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1997), p. 156.
38 Guite, Sounding the Seasons, p. xiii.
39 Jacobson and Jacobson, Invitation to the Psalms, p. 27, rightly bring out the ‘turning point’ in a psalm. They credit Patrick Miller, They Cried to the Lord: The Form and Theology of Biblical Prayer (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 1994) for this insight. The key difference between my discussion and theirs is that they reference psalms that are ‘structured around a central turning point’, whereas I am more broadly and more generously considering how a psalmist might incorporate a turning point – not necessarily building a psalm from it.
40 Cf. Pss 49, 55.
41 Fantuzzo rightly claims the acrostic ‘is not merely ornamental; it is part of the communicative process’. C. J. Fantuzzo, ‘Acrostic’, in Dictionary of the Old Testament: Wisdom, Poetry and Writings (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2008), p. 3.
42 See e.g. Bullock, Introduction to the Old Testament, p. 158; Jacobson and Jacobson, Invitation to the Psalms; Futato, Interpreting the Psalms; Bellinger, Psalms; W. Dennis Tucker, Jr, ‘Psalms 1: The Book of’, in Dictionary of the Old Testament.
43 Pss 30, 32, 34, 73, 92, 103, 116.
44 Pss 1, 25, 34, 37, 49, 73, 111, 112, 128.
45 Pss 2, 20, 21, 28, 45, 72, 101, 110, 132, 144.
46 Complete alphabetic acrostics are Psalms 145 (hymn of praise); 111 (hymn of thanksgiving); 112 (wisdom psalm); 37 (wisdom psalm); 119 (didactic wisdom poem). Incomplete alphabetic acrostics are Psalms 25 (lament); 34 (hymn of thanksgiving).
47 I am aware that a number of acrostic psalms appear in other so-called content genres, such as wisdom and royal. That, however, does not lessen my argument, but rather gives it more weight. In such presentations, the structure of the psalms is ignored, implying that the structure of the poetry is merely decorative.
48 Reasons typically given for the use of the acrostic format tend to miss the point; yes, the acrostic may indeed be a mnemonic aid, display the poet's skill and bring a sense of completeness (see Fantuzzo, ‘Acrostic’, p. 4). The last reason is typically the one most cited in the literature: cf. N. K. Gottwald, Studies in the Book of Lamentations, rev. edn (London: SCM, 1962). For a more technical discussion, see Klaus Seybold, ‘Akrostichie im Psalter’, in Studien zu Sprache und Stil der Psalmen (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2010), pp. 245–58.
49 For more on poetry's potential to be truth-bearing and its tumultuous relationship with the Enlightenment, see Malcolm Guite, Faith, Hope, and Poetry: Theology and the Poetic Imagination (Farnham: Ashgate, 2010).
50 Friday Night Chats: Psalms with English Poet Malcolm Guite, 19 Mar. 2021, The Village Chapel. A similar observation has been made by the poet Jeanne Murray Walker in her essay ‘Sandals on the Ground: My Pilgrimage with the Sonnet’ (Image 98), in which she explores how the sonnet form, with its limits and boundaries, moved her past her writer's block.
51 William Brown, Seeing the Psalms: A Theology of Metaphor (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox, 2002).
52 Mark Oakely, The Splash of Words: Believing in Poetry (Norwich: Canterbury, 2016), p. 87. Oakley elsewhere describes Thomas as a poet of counterpoint. By that he means ‘a poet in which sounds of two possible readings meet, where two distinct melodies create texture’. Mark Oakely, ‘R. S. Thomas and the Hiddenness of God’ (paper presented at The Severn Forum, Cheltenham, University of Gloucestershire, 27 April 2017), p. 10.
53 R. S. Thomas, ‘Cones’, in Etched by Silence: A Pilgrimage through the Poems of R. S. Thomas, ed. Jim Cotter, rev. edn (Norwich: Canterbury Press, 2013), p. 22. Reprinted with the kind permission of Canterbury Press.
54 Thomas, ‘Raptor’, in Etched, p. 84, stanzas 1, 2 and 4. Reprinted with the kind permission of Canterbury Press.
55 Herbert, ‘Prayer (I)’, in The Complete Poetry, pp. 48–9. Guite says of Herbert's ‘Prayer (I)’: it ‘gives us twenty-six different images of prayer, which I believe he intended to correspond to the letters of the alphabet, as a kind of alphabet of what prayer is. It is one of the world's greatest poems, and it ends very modestly: “Something understood”.’ Malcolm Guite in https://www.cardus.ca/comment/article/from-imagination-to-incarnation/.
56 Jeffrey, Scripture and Poetic Imagination, p. 122.
57 Helen Vendler, The Poetry of George Herbert (Cambridge, MA; Harvard University Press, 1975), p. 39. Cf. Herbert's ‘The Collar’, in The Complete Poetry, p. 146; and Jeffrey, Scripture and Poetic Imagination, p. 126.
58 Futato, Interpreting the Psalms, pp. 42–7.
59 Hunter, An Introduction to the Psalms; Jacobson and Jacobson, Invitation to the Psalms; Creach, Discovering Psalms; Crenshaw, The Psalms.
60 Cf. Herbert, ‘A Paradox’, in The Complete Poetry, p. 199.
61 I am grateful to an anonymous reviewer for this suggestion.
62 Thomas, ‘I Think That Maybe’, in Etched, p. 102.
63 See Triggs, ‘The Halo upon the Bones’. See also William Davis, R. S. Thomas: Poetry and Theology (Waco, TX: Baylor University Press, 2007).
64 Thomas, ‘The Absence’, in Etched, p. 4.
65 I would like to thank an anonymous reviewer for their suggestion on this translation.
66 Malcolm Guite, ‘Engine Against Th’ Almightie’, in After Prayer, p. 10. This is a poetic reflection on one image from Herbert's poem ‘Prayer (I)’ (in The Complete Collection, pp. 48–9).
67 Thomas, ‘You show me two faces’, in Etched, p. 78, first and fourth stanzas.
68 See e.g. Thomas ‘The Island’, in Collected Poems, 1945–1990 (London: Phoenix, 2000), p. 223.
69 Herbert, ‘Bitter-Sweet’, in The Complete Poetry, p. 164.
70 Quoted in Leland Ryken, Literary Introductions to the Books of the Bible (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2015), p. 198; emphasis added.
71 William Shakespeare, Sonnet 76, in Shakespeare's Sonnets, ed. Katherine Duncan-Jones (London: Bloomsbury, 2010), p. 262. I would like to thank Malcolm Guite and David Jeffrey for their comments on this article. I benefited much from their expertise in English poetry. In addition, I am grateful to Dan Estes, who has been a constant encouragement in my reading Psalms as poetry.