Classical Hebrew Poetry: A Guide to Its Techniques - The Library of Hebrew Bible/Old Testament Studies | Biblical Literature Analysis & Academic Research Resource

This is the best resource for the study of Biblical Hebrew (BH) poetry. It covers a host of topics and provides comparison with Ugaritic and Akkadian poetry throughout the book. Watson uses Ugaritic and Akkadian poetry to provide context for BH poetry within the realm of ancient Semitic texts. Examples are plentiful.Aside from these comparisons, the book starts with defining terminology and method for study of BH poetry. This is a very useful material, including an interesting discussion function of poetry. Watson then moved on to discuss the nature of the poet and the fact that BH poetry was primarily ORAL poetry. That is it was composed to be heard, not necessarily read as it was passed down to us in written form. This is a very critical point for proper understanding of BH poetry. The rest of the book covers various techniques and aspect of BH poetry, such as metre, parallelism, stanza, strophe, verse-patterns, sounds, imagery and other poetic devices. The typical bibliography, indexes, etc. are of course at the end of the book.Watson's work is one of those landmark studies that moved the field forward a great deal. For serious students of BH, this is an indispensable volume. You can't do without it. I whole heartedly recommend it.