Chapters into Verse: Poetry in English Inspired by the Bible: Volume 1: Genesis to MalachiRobert Atwan, Laurance Wieder Oxford University Press, 1993 M05 6 - 512 pages For generations, poets have turned to the Bible for insight and inspiration. What did so many creative minds find in scripture? Is the Bible still a vital source of poetic inspirations? Chapters Into Verse is the first comprehensive collection ever made of poems written in English inspired by the Bible. A groundbreaking anthology, it introduces readers to a distinct heritage of English poetry: the scriptural tradition. Though frequently ignored and sometimes suppressed, this tradition rivals the classical and is every bit as venerable. Drawing a unique map of the history of English poetry, the two volumes of Chapters Into Verse survey and define the literary legacy of the Scriptures from the fourteenth century to the present. Each volume is arranged in scriptural order, and each poem is preceded by the biblical passage that inspired it. Thus readers can conveniently witness the various ways sacred text has sparked the imagination of poets throughout the ages. In Volume I, which covers Genesis to Malachi, almost every book of the Old Testament is represented. The collection features verses both famous and unfamiliar, from Milton's Paradise Lost and Lord Byron's Hebrew Melodies to Christopher Smart's hymns and Mary Herbert's psalms. The editors have included poems by virtually all the prominent religious poets--among them, John Donne, George Herbert, Henry Vaughan, Edward Taylor, and Gerard Manley Hopkins. Included, too, are devotional and visionary works from a wide range of vintage poets--Robert Burns, William Blake, Walt Whitman, Emily Dickinson, Christina Rossetti, Alfred Tennyson, and Robert Browning. Proving that the Bible is just as powerful a source of inspiration today as it was in the past, the collection assembles a mixed congregation of modern and contemporary poets, such as Marianne Moore, Delmore Schwartz, Dylan Thomas, Robert Frost, William Carlos Williams, Countee Cullen, e.e. cummings, William Butler Yeats, Robert Lowell, Hugh McDiarmid, Laura (Riding) Jackson, Charles Reznikoff, A.D. Hope, Geoffrey Hill, Denise Levertov, Philip Levine, John Ashbery, and Derek Walcott. Of enduring interest to readers of both scripture and literature, this anthology illuminates key passages of the Old Testament. The measured speech and inspired leaps of poetry offer a spirited alternative to the textual exegesis usually supplied by prose commentary. As such, Chapters Into Verse is truly a poets' Bible. In selection after selection, readers will encounter an astonishing variety of religious experiences, as a host of poets from many eras and many backgrounds respond to Holy Scripture spiritually, profoundly, and imaginatively. |
Contents
The Bible is an antique Volume Emily Dickinson | 3 |
There Is No Land Yet Laura Riding Jackson | 9 |
A Divine Image William Blake | 15 |
A Negro Sermon James Weldon Johnson | 19 |
Naming the Animals Anthony Hecht | 25 |
Eve Ralph Hodgson | 33 |
Original Sequence Philip Booth | 39 |
Imperial Adam A D Hope | 45 |
Sion Lies Waste Fulke Greville Lord Brooke | 259 |
THE BOOK OF NEHEMIAH | 266 |
From Life to Love Countee Cullen | 272 |
To Brooklyn Bridge Hart Crane | 273 |
A Dialogue Henry Vaughan | 279 |
Hath the rain a father? Jones Very | 285 |
Blessed is the man Marianne Moore | 291 |
Psalm XXIII P Hately Waddell | 297 |
Ancient History Siegfried Sassoon | 52 |
Authors Prologue Dylan Thomas | 57 |
Oaks and Squirrels Anne Porter | 70 |
Isaacs Marriage Henry Vaughan | 83 |
Jacob Wrestling with the Angel Jones Very | 96 |
On Dinah Francis Quarles | 97 |
from The Maidens Blush or Joseph Joshua Sylvester | 103 |
Israel II Charles Reznikoff | 109 |
The Midwives Celia Gilbert | 115 |
On Gods Law Francis Quarles | 123 |
Sound the Loud Timbrel Thomas Moore | 129 |
The Jew Isaac Rosenberg | 137 |
The Book of the World William Drummond of Hawthornden | 139 |
Day of Atonement Charles Reznikoff | 146 |
Lines Written Under the Influence of Delirium William | 153 |
THE FIFTH BOOK OF MOSES CALLED DEUTERONOMY | 159 |
It always felt to me a wrong Emily Dickinson | 165 |
II Robert Browning | 166 |
THE BOOK OF JOSHUA | 173 |
The Stone Henry Vaughan | 179 |
Angry Samson Robert Graves | 185 |
THE BOOK OF RUTH | 191 |
The Pebble Elinor Wylie | 197 |
took my Power in my Hand Emily Dickinson | 199 |
In Which Roosevelt Is Compared to Saul Vachel Lindsay | 205 |
Davids Peccavi Robert Southwell | 212 |
The Rabbis Song Rudyard Kipling | 220 |
David in the Cave of Adullam Charles Lamb | 226 |
The Harp the Monarch Minstrel Swept George Noel Gordon | 233 |
Solomon and Balkis Robert Browning | 240 |
Naamans Song Rudyard Kipling | 247 |
Hymn to the Supreme Being Christopher Smart | 253 |
When Israel of the Lord beloved Sir Walter Scott | 303 |
Hexameters Samuel Taylor Coleridge | 305 |
The First Six Verses of the Ninetieth Psalm Robert Burns | 311 |
Praise II George Herbert | 317 |
The Sleep Elizabeth Barrett Browning | 323 |
Along the Banks Joel Barlow | 329 |
from A Pindaric Poem Anne Finch Countess of Winchilsea | 335 |
Wisdom William Cowper | 340 |
On Woman William Butler Yeats | 349 |
A Spirit Appeared to Me Herman Melville | 355 |
In Ecclesiastes I Read J P White | 362 |
The Conclusion of the Matter Christopher Smart | 368 |
from The Most Excellent Song which was Solomons Michael | 375 |
6 c Elizabeth Singer | 381 |
A Sacred Eclogue Alexander Pope | 387 |
Chapter of the Prophet Isaiah Abraham Cowley | 393 |
The Steed Bit his Master Anonymous | 400 |
On Falling Asleep by Firelight William Meredith | 406 |
Israel Carl Rakosi | 410 |
In Time of The Breaking of Nations Thomas Hardy | 416 |
The Burning Wheel Aldous Huxley | 423 |
Ezekiel John Greenleaf Whittier | 429 |
Nebuchadnezzar Elinor Wylie | 435 |
A Vision of Beasts John HeathStubbs | 441 |
My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge Jones Very | 443 |
A Dream Question Thomas Hardy MICAH | 451 |
Haggai John Chagy HAGGAI | 457 |
Easter Wings George Herbert MALACHI | 463 |
471 | |
479 | |
Common terms and phrases
A. D. HOPE A. E. HOUSMAN Abraham Adam angel Babylon Balaam beasts behold blessed blood breath called CHARLES REZNIKOFF child children of Israel CHRISTOPHER SMART cloud Copyright D. H. LAWRENCE dark daughter David dead death doth dream dust earth Egypt EMILY DICKINSON evil eyes father fear fire flesh FRANCIS QUARLES glory God's gold grace hand hath head hear heard heart heaven holy Jacob Jehovah Jerusalem Judah king land light live LORD BYRON Marianne Moore mercy MICHAEL DRAYTON mighty Moses mouth night NOEL GORDON o'er Philistines praise pray prayer prophet Psalms Reprinted by permission saith Saul sigh sing sleep Solomon song sorrow soul spake stone stood sweet sword thereof thine things thou art thou hast thou shalt thought tongue tree unto the LORD unto thee voice weep words