Unparalleled Poetry: A Cognitive Approach to the Free-Rhythm Verse of the Hebrew Bible (COGNITION AND POETICS SERIES)

Cover
Series
Unparalleled Poetry
Copyright
Dedication
Contents
Preface
Acknowledgments
Introduction
	I.1. Gestalt Theory of Part/​Whole
	I.2. The Significance of Lineation
	I.3. Balance as a Cognitive Schema
Abbreviations and Symbols
Part I: Introductory Matters
	1. Unparalleling Biblical Poetry
		1.1. A Prose-​Poetry Continuum versus a Prose-​Verse Distinction
		1.2. Metrical Studies and Their Decline
		1.3. Parallelism and Biblical Poetry
		1.4. Conformation, Not Parallelism
		1.5. A Way Forward through Cognitive Poetics
	2. A Preliminary Description of Biblical Verse
		2.1. Biblical Poetry Is an Aural, and Not a Visual, Phenomenon
			Excursus A. Ancient and Medieval Layouts of Biblical Poetry
			Excursus B. What Did the Ancient Poems Sound Like?
		2.2. Biblical Poetic Lines Are Not Cued by Text-​Internal End-​Marking; Rather, They Emerge in Patterned or Organized Relation to Each Other
		2.3. Biblical Poetic Lines Emerge in Small Groupings, Often of Two or Three Lines, but Sometimes Larger
		2.4. Biblical Poetry Is Free-​Rhythm Poetry
		2.5. Lines of Biblical Poetry Are of Variable Lengths, but They Tend to Fall within Certain Ranges
		2.6. Biblical Poetic Lines Are Structural Units of Poems That Are Built from All Aspects of Language
		2.7. Summary
	3. The Nature of the Biblical Hebrew Poetic Line
		3.1. The Nonlinearity of Biblical “Lines,” Graphically and Conceptually
		3.2. The Emergence of Biblical Lines and Figures in Part-​Whole Relationships
Part II: Gestalt Principles: Emergence of Biblical Poetic Structure
	4. Perceptual Organization and the Law of Simplicity, Proximity and Similarity
		4.1. Gestalt Part-​Whole Perceptual Organization
		4.2. The Fundamental Gestalt Law: Simplicity
		4.3. The Principle of Proximity
		4.4. The Principle of Similarity
	5. Symmetry, Balance and Imbalance
		5.1. The Principle of Symmetry
		5.2. A Sampling of Symmetrical Line-​Pairs
		5.3. The Equilibrium of Symmetry
		5.4. Weaker Symmetry, Near-​Symmetry, Partial Symmetry
		5.5. Balance and Leveling
		5.6. Imbalance and Sharpening
		5.7. Larger Patterns of Symmetry
		5.8. A Symmetrical Poem: Qešet, “Bow” (2 Samuel 1:19–​27)
		5.9. The Perceptibility of Symmetry
	6. Good Continuation, Closure, Requiredness, and Principled Lineations
		6.1. The Principle of Good Continuation
		6.2. The Principle of Closure
		6.3. Requiredness
		6.4. From Gestalt Principles to Principled Lineations
Part III: Remaining Issues
	7. Integration and Unintegrated Lines, Rhythm in Lamentations, and Line-​Length Constraints
		7.1. Integration and Unintegrated Lines
		7.2. Rhythm and Lines in Lamentations 1–​4
		7.3. Constraints on Short and Long Lines
		7.4. Conclusion
	8. Biblical Poetry and Prose
		8.1. Prose and Verse, Verse and Poetry
		8.2. Biblical Parallelism: Poetic Structure and Poetic Function Confusion
		8.3. The Problem of a Features Approach to Identifying Biblical Poetry
		8.4. Distinguishing Contextually between Prose and Verse
		8.5. “Parallelism” in Prose Narrative
		8.6. Elevated Style and Mixing of the Modes in the Prophets
		8.7. Conclusion
	9. Conclusion: Unparalleled Poetry
		9.1. Psalm 23 Revisited
		9.2. Implications for Biblical and Comparative Studies
References
A Selective Index of Authors, Subjects, and Biblical Texts