Scripture and the English Poetic Imagination

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.
Contents
Introduction
1. Poetry and the Voice of God
Part 1: Medieval Poetry and the Bible
2. Paraphrase and Theater: Bonaventure's Retracing the Arts to Theology and Literary Evangelism
3. Quotation and Inflection: Dante and Chaucer on the Sermon on the Mount
4. Egyptian Gold: Biblical Transformations of Ovid in The Canterbury Tales
5. Irony and Misreading: Courtly Love and Marriage according to Henry VIII
Part 2: Scripture and the English Poetic Imagination after the Reformation
6. Poetry in Preaching, Prayer, and Pastoral Care: John Donne and George Herbert
7. Habitual Music: The Influence on English Poets of the King James Bible
8. Conclusion and Form for the Personal in Modern Poetry
9. The Conversion Poems of Margaret Avison
10. Meditation and Gratitude: The Enduringly Beautiful Changes of Richard Wilbur
11. Epiphanies of a Father's Love: Anthony Hecht and Gjertrud Schnackenberg
Appendix: Can Faustus Be Saved? The Fragile Future of Our Common Book
Index