Poets of the Bible
From Solomon's Song of Songs to John's Revelation
28 July 2017
Description
“The vividness and beauty of the language emerge in a fresh way... with evocative simplicity.”—Robert Alter
The world’s greatest poetry resides in the Bible, yet these major poets are traditionally rendered into prose. In this pioneering volume, Willis Barnstone’s translations restore the lyricism and power of the poets’ voices in both the New and the Old Testaments. In the Hebrew Bible, we hear Solomon rhapsodise in Song of Songs; David chant in Psalms; God and Job debate in grand rhetoric; and prophet-poet Isaiah plead for peace. Jesus speaks in wisdom verse in the Gospel, Paul is a philosopher of love and John of Patmos roars majestically in Revelation, the Bible’s epic poem. This ground-breaking volume includes every major biblical poem from Genesis and Adam and Eve in the Garden to the last pages of Alpha and Omega in Paradise.
Reviews
"...fascinating new volume..." — Herald Scotland
Also By: Willis Barnstone 
The Poems of Jesus Christ
Paperback, 2014
The words of Jesus Christ are restored to their original poetic form in this extraordinary volume.Borges at Eighty: Conversations
E Book, 2013
A collection of interviews now available from New Directions for the first time
Borges at Eighty: Conversations
Paperback, 2013
A collection of interviews now available from New Directions for the first time
The Poems of Jesus Christ
E Book, 2012
The words of Jesus Christ are restored to their original poetic form in this extraordinary volume.
The Restored New Testament: A New Translation with Commentary, Including the Gnostic Gospels Thomas, Mary, and Judas
Hardback, 2009
From acclaimed scholar Willis Barnstone, The Restored New Testament—newly translated from the Greek and informed by Semitic sources.
