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

by Laurance Wieder (Editor)

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 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.

Genres: Poetry

336 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 1995

Reviews

[Darren · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not all of them were great, but this book was awesome enough that even though I originally got it through interlibrary loan, within an hour I'd ordered my own copy.

[Keith · Rating 3 out of 5]

What’s surprising about this book is how some of the most notable English poets have failed to match the beauty and power of the prosaic King James Version. The poems in this collection simply fail to match that verve and density. There is not a poem I’ve seen in this collection that I would prefer over the King James Version.

A significant part of the problem, I believe, is that all the poets, except Henry Howard, miss the most fundamental structural feature of the Hebrew Psalms – the parallelism of meaning between two halves of the line. (There are occasional triads.) Between the half lines there may be some equivalence of meaning, of the number of stressed syllables and of syntax.

Failing to see that key organizing feature, the poets try to fit a square peg into a round hole. It’s like trying to fit a sonnet into a ballad format. The sonnet has a very particular form and logic that cannot effectively be bent into the form of a ballad. It might be put in another form, but first one must come to grips with its original form. Instead, the poets try to squeeze this very particular art form into the shape of an English lyric.

Henry Howard is the only one who intuitively seems to grasp the underlying form of the Hebrew originals, though he calls his translations a “paraphrase.” He uses a long line with a caesura or space between the half lines. Of all the poets, he best captures the spirit and shape of the Psalms.

Other than the King James Version, I strongly recommend Robert Alter’s complete translation. It is a wonderful mixture of research, history and poetry. It helps create an all-new understanding of these ancient poems. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...

[Seth Mcdevitt · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great resource. Gives you a new way to hear and receive the beauty of the psalms. Lots of different poets in here. I only had read the ones from Milton and George Herbert, but many I had not read.

[Mary Helene · Rating 2 out of 5]

Sigh. The psalms by Milton - these stand out. They are readable and real. Most of the others felt too dense to plow through. Browsing this book did, however, inspire me to start my own collection of Psalms by Poets. So far I have: 63 by Daniel Berrigan and 146 by Art Laffin. Anyone else know of one? I'm not talking translations, but a rewrite of the material.

[Douglas Wilson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really good stuff.