Lament

Tremper Longman III accurately identifies in his Preface that the Psalms are both “familiar” and “foreign” to many people in the church. People in and outside of the church are constantly exposed to the Psalms. It is a common book for devotionals and laments. However, even with people’s daily exposure with the book it has not made the text much clearer in regards to the poetic idioms, expressions, and structures that people have struggled to understanding when reading the book of the Psalms.…

stupidity!” (5) He is a monster but is still reviled by the nonsensical violence, his own violence, that dominates existence. He reviles both humanity and himself. Grendel accepts the reality of his situation. He is a savage, fiendish monster. He laments “Not of course, that I fool myself with thoughts that I’m more noble” (Gardner, 5). He refers to himself as a “pointless, ridiculous monster crouched in the shadows, stinking of dead men”. In just a few lines we see what Grendel thinks about…

Beowulf. Grendel talks about a monster who lives with his mother in a cave who discovers the world and became fascinated in it except for the brutal violence that was brought to the world by king Hrothgar and his men. Then we have the poem The Wife’s Lament which is about a woman who…

to the Slave is the Fourth of July? acts as a scathing reprimand of American history’s construction, revealing the underlying perpetuated discrimination in antebellum America. Both texts lament the perceived racial discrimination imposed by the powerful through education…

“Kingdom of God”, “the day of the LORD”, “the end of the world”, “the last judgment” and “a new heaven and a new earth.” These words are the image of eschatology, and eschatology is an important subject in the Bible. Even Donald K. McKim says that the theme of the Bible is the kingdom of God (McKim, 167). In the Gospel, Jesus taught about the kingdom of God in his whole life and ministry, and the kingdom of God is represented as “already, but not yet” (McKim, 170). John Calvin, a 16th century…

The Seafarer, lets us know that even though he is more alone out on sea than in the city he likes it better. The Wanderer, makes us think of what we do in order to keep ourselves happy. Unlike the Seafarer where he chose to be all alone, The Wife's Lament has no choice but to be alone. In a society where men run the women and the aren't seen as anybody without a man. Each of these dramatic monologues will show us a side of the Anglo-Saxons much different than Beowulf. The Seafarer feels alone,…

flow and intonation of language could not possibly compose one of the most complex and labyrinthine forms of expression (33). Yet, they did, and they did well. By referencing some early poetic works, The Minstrel Boy by James Nack, and The Mute’s Lament by John Carlin, the absolute ability of deaf individuals is realized, as well as a sample of some of the intimate topics they dealt with. The symbolism and reception of early deaf poetry contributed to themes of progress, isolation, and…

Lyric poetry presents the deep feelings and emotions of the poet as opposed to poetry that tells a story or presents a witty observation. Indeed, "We Wear the Mask" is a lyric poem by Paul Laurence Dunbar that explores how in the late nineteenth century, African Americans could not publicly reveal their true feelings about whites' maltreatment without the risk of dangerous retaliation. Through paradox, metaphor, and apostrophe, the speaker ponders how oppressed black Americans are forced to hide…

In “Self-reliance” Emerson makes a bold claim on the concept of time and man’s conceptual idea of perfection. He states: “Man cannot be happy and strong until he too lives with nature in the present” (151). Emerson would seem to argue that man cannot exists in the present moment unlike nature. Which is another way of saying that man simply cannot be or just exist. In order to be man must leave his thoughts of time behind and simply exists in all facets of life. This brings up two important…

Absalon fili mi is a Renaissance motet presumably composed by Josquin des Prez. It is a composition for four voices inspired on David’s lament over the death of his son Absalom. This motet contains religious subject because the poem is taken from the old testament of the Bible; however, it is not part of the liturgy. Departing from the tradition of the Medieval times, motets of the renaissance abandoned the use of the cantus firmus as a base of composition. Instead, all voices are…