Scripture and the English Poetic Imagination
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Overview
The God of the Bible often speaks in poetry. Beginning with an illuminating exploration of eloquence in the divine voice, a highly acclaimed professor of literature opens up the treasury of biblical tradition among English poets both past and present, showing them to be well attuned not only to Scripture’s meaning but also to its music. In exploring the work of various poets, David Lyle Jeffrey demonstrates how the poetry of the Bible affords a register of understanding in which the beauty of Holy Scripture deepens meditation on its truth and is indeed a vital part of that truth.
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- Examines poetry in the English language thatexhibits the particulars of the language and spirit of the Bible
- Explores some of the ways Holy Scripture has shaped te English poetic imagination
- Studies the work of various poets to shed light on the various examples that demonstrate how these texts are attuned to Holy Scripture
- Poetry and the Voice of God
Part 1: Medieval Poetry and the Bible
- Paraphrase and Theater: Bonaventure’s Retracing the Arts to Theology and Literary Evangelism
- Quotation and Inflection: Dante and Chaucer on the Sermon on the Mount
- Egyptian Gold: Biblical Transformations of Ovid in The Canterbury Tales
- Irony and Misreading: Courtly Love and Marriage according to Henry VIII
Part 2: Scripture and the English Poetic Imagination after the Reformation
- Poetry in Preaching, Prayer, and Pastoral Care: John Donne and George Herbert
- Habitual Music: The Influence on English Poets of the King James Bible
- Conclusion and Form for the Personal in Modern Poetry
- The Conversion Poems of Margaret Avison
- Meditation and Gratitude: The Enduringly Beautiful Changes of Richard Wilbur
- Epiphanies of a Father's Love: Anthony Hecht and Gjertrud Schnackenberg
God, David Lyle Jeffrey reminds us (with a little help from John Donne), is a poet: ‘a very figurative and metaphorical God.’ In this learned, insightful, and beautifully written book, Jeffrey leads us from Caedmon through Dante, Chaucer, Donne, and many others, all the way to the contemporary poetry of Margaret Avison, Richard Wilbur, Anthony Hecht, and Gjertrud Schnackenberg. The result is a book that, like poetry itself, deserves to be read slowly and savored. Throughout, Jeffrey makes a compelling case that the Bible has been the ‘perennial touchstone' that has animated English poetry for more than a millennium, even in the case of poets who haven’t been particularly religious. The loss of scriptural literacy in more recent days, therefore, constitutes a singular crisis for the production and interpretation of literature. But it is also a crisis for the soul since, as Jeffrey eloquently shows, Scripture provides a structure for poetry that can 'lift broken hearts to a hope beyond themselves.’
Brent A. Strawn, W. R. Cannon Distinguished Professor of Old Testament, Emory University
This is a book of immense learning and of profound significance for our understanding of English literature and its biblical sources and fabric. In little more than two hundred pages, David Lyle Jeffrey ranges with fluency and insight from the ancient world to the twenty-first century—from the Bible itself to Augustine, Dante, Chaucer, Marlowe, Donne, Herbert, and on through Margaret Avison and Gjertrud Schnackenberg. Jeffrey’s capacity to speak alternately with rustic humor and in high prophetic strains makes his study not just exceptionally illuminating but also richly entertaining. Every chapter uncovers unexpected gems. His powerful writing repeatedly moved me to laughter as well as tears.
Dennis Danielson, professor emeritus of English, University of British Columbia; author of The Tao of Right and Wrong
In this stunning and magisterial work, the fruit of a lifetime’s love of literature and Scripture, David Lyle Jeffrey combines an extraordinary depth and range with a keen scholarly, cultural, and literary sensibility to trace the influence of the Bible’s language and spirit on literature. Apart from subjects, idiom, or diction, a scriptural consciousness pervades English literature from Caedmon to Wilbur. But given the current lack of coherence, Jeffery ponders how literary criticism can regain its authority or literature can offer a hope that is communal and responsible. This book is a must for all lovers of literature.
Micheal O’Siadhail, author of The Five Quintets