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Wendy Furman-Adams
English 221
Literature of the Bible
A Few Notes on the Psalms |
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I. Genre, date and authorship
The Psalms, traditionally divided into five
books, make up the Hebrew songbook--a collection
of traditional poetry comparable to the Chinese
Book of Songs, the Japanese Manyoshu, or the
Indian Vedic Hymns. Not unrelated to ancient
Canaanite poetic traditions, these poems (many,
though not all, composed to be sung, often in
the liturgy) record personal and national
experience from before the time of David (c.
1,000 B.C.E.) through post-exilic times and the
foundation of the second temple (after 520 B.C.E.).
Gradually accumulated and organized, their tone
ranges from joyous to despairing, plaintive to
ferocious; they give lyrical expression to every
aspect of the personal relationship between
Yahweh and his people. Because of their
stylistic conservatism, their date of
composition is difficult to gauge; their
authorship also remains mysterious. (The word
"of" -- as in "a psalm of David" -- may mean only
"associated with," "inspired by," or "used by,"
among other associations).
II. Principles of form
A. Rhythm--a stress system, within which each
dyad (or occasionally triad) of lines has an
equal, or occasionally an alternating, number of
stressed syllables. The rule, according to
Robert Alter, is that "there are never less than
two stresses in a verset and never more than
four, and no two stresses follow each other
without an intervening unstressed syllable" (The
Literary Guide to the Bible, ed. Alter and Frank
Kermode [Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap P. of Harvard
U., 1987], 613). This metrical system is rarely
conveyed in English translations. Here are two
examples from the KJV:
Prove me O Lord, and try me;
Test my heart and my mind. (Psalm 26.2)
The Lord is my light and my salvation;
Whom shall I fear? (Psalm 27.1)
B. Parallelism--sometimes called "thought
rhyme," a linguistic connection between two (or
sometimes three) lines--used in conjunction with
the metrical one--which comes across to the
reader in any language.
Types of parallels:
1. synonymous parallels:
He does not deal with us according to our sins,
Nor requite us according to our iniquities.
2. climactic (or "step") parallels:
The Lord is near to all who call upon him,
To all who call upon him in truth.
3. complementary parallels:
My soul clings to thee;
Thy right hand upholds me.
4. antithetic parallels:
The wicked borrows, and cannot pay back,
But the righteous is generous and gives.
III. Structure
The structure of the psalms ranges from very
loose (although in such psalms there is
generally a discernible building of intensity--a
pattern also seen in the poetry of Job) to a
quite formal "closed" structure. "The most
common expression of this formal predilection,"
says Alter, is the "so-called envelope structure
. . . in which significant terms introduced at
the beginning are brought back prominently at
the end" -- sometimes as a refrain (Alter 255). In
any case, says Leland Ryken, one often finds a
three-part structure:
1. statement of theme or presentation of lyric
stimulus.
2. development of thought or emotion of the
speaker.
3. resolution of reflection or emotion into a
concluding thought or attitude.
IV. Imagery
Since the psalms are generally public (and often
liturgical) in function, they are conservative,
and essentially archetypal, in their imagistic
vocabulary. It is more important that an image
be apt than that it be striking or original.
Images come from the natural world, from the
temple and temple worship, from agriculture and
family life, from hunting and warfare--all
ordinary aspects of Hebrew life between roughly
the tenth and fifth centuries B.C.E.
V. Types
Many psalms bring together a mixture of genres
(apart from the fact that all are lyrics and
many have a narrative element); thus
classifications vary widely. No list is
complete, however, that does not take account of
psalms of worship (including "pilgrim psalms,"
sung in connection with processions to Jerusalem
and its temple), of praise and thanksgiving, of
exhortation and wisdom, of entreaty and lament;
psalms of penitence and messianic psalms. |
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