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

ISBN 10: 0195130588 / ISBN 13: 9780195130584

Published by Oxford University Press, 1999

About this Item

Item in good condition. Textbooks may not include supplemental items i.e. CDs, access codes etc.

Seller Inventory # 00099035125

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Poets' Book of Psalms: The Complete Psalter as Rendered by Twenty-Five Poets from the Sixteenth to the Twentieth Centuries
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Publication Date: 1999
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0195130588
• ISBN 13: 9780195130584
• Binding: Soft cover
• Condition: Good

About this title

Synopsis

Uniting the lyrical songs of Israel with their literary legacy, this volume comprises renditions of the Psalms by twenty-five renowned poets of the past and present. These 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 vivid, complete, and lyrical Psalter for the modern reader--is a living language alternative to the many existing prose translations and pious paraphrases of this particularly beautiful work.

The collection also features an introduction by editor Wieder describing the often surprising history and politics surrounding many of the poets' lives and writings. For easy cross-reference usage in meditation, prayer, or scholarship, Wieder offers the King James Version of the Psalms at the end of this text. He separates The Poets' Book of Psalms into five parts according to the Midrash tradition, which also identifies the ten types of Psalms: glory, melody, Psalm, song, praise, prayer, blessing, thanksgiving, Hallelujah, and exultation. This new Psalter, therefore, can be read at random or in order without compromising the integrity or music of its poetry. All 150 poetically interpreted Psalms speak to the three religious traditions that hold the Bible sacred--Judaism, Christianity, and Islam--and all are sure to fascinate students and scholars of poetry, Western religion, and biblical or world literature.

About the Author

Laurance Wieder has contributed poems and reviews to the New Yorker, The New York Times Book Review, and Scripsi. He edited the highly-acclaimed two-volume work Chapters Into Verse: Poetry in English Inspired by the Bible.