Three Thousand Years of Hebrew Versification: Essays in Comparative Prosody (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9780300144871)

In this unparalleled study of the forms of Hebrew poetry, preeminent authority Benjamin Harshav examines Hebrew verse during three millennia of changing historical and cultural contexts. He takes us around the world of the Jewish Diaspora, comparing the changes in Hebrew verse as it came into contact with the Canaanite, Greek, Arabic, Italian, German, Russian, Yiddish, and English poetic forms. Harshav explores the types and constraints of free rhythms, the meanings of sound patterns, the historical and linguistic frameworks that produced the first accentual iambs in English, German, Russian, and Hebrew, and the discovery of these iambs in a Yiddish romance written in Venice in 1508/09. In each chapter, the author presents an innovative analytical theory on a particular poetic domain, drawing on his close study of thousands of Hebrew poems.

Author: Benjamin Harshav
ISBN-10: 0300144873
ISBN-13: 9780300144871
Publisher: Yale University Press
Language: English
Published: 11/25/2014
Pages: 376
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 1.76lbs
Size: 9.58h x 6.45w x 1.45d

Review Citation(s):
Choice 04/01/2015 pg. 1309