The tradition of psalms in modern lyric poetry

Out of the biblical books the book of psalms was and probably even still is the most popular book. For as long as we can trace the tradition of the biblical books the book of psalms is one of the most intensely received ones - as even the discoveries of the dead sea scrolls confirm. Although the growing of this biblical book cannot be traced in every detail it is generally assumed that the book of psalms consists of a diligently arranged collection of prayers of different times, several forms, for various purposes. The special interest that centers on the book of psalm throughout the centuries not only lead to an intensive copying of this book but also to manifold translations. Within the tradition of handing down, reading and interpreting biblical psalms the translations are further supplemented by poems inspired by psalms thereby transforming and actualizing the biblical psalms in different ways.
As far as the content is concerned, some poems very obviously continue the tradition of the biblical psalms into the way of live, believes and thoughts of contemporary people. Besides, there are also poems that critically reflect on the tradition of psalms or distancing themselves from religious concepts and believes.
Looking at the more formal aspects it becomes obvious that only a few of these poems are constructed strictly similar to the original psalms more often they use just some elements of the biblical patterns. 1 Furthermore not every poem that is entitled "psalm" automatically fits the category of biblical psalms, and equally a quotation out of one of the psalms does neither put a poem into this tradition.
These difficulties of reception may also be perceived within contemporary anthologies, collecting poems that require to represent modern psalms. Often, however, they attempt to integrate a great variety of poems into the category of psalms, at the risk of blurring the differentiation between lyric reflections and psalms.2
Hence it is the aim of this contribution to search for criteria that enable a description of biblical psalms in a way that allows to get a better look at the tradition of biblical psalms within modern lyric poetry.
What is a psalm?
" The course of the study of the psalms can be read as a story of shifting concentrations on their various features in the search for the best answer to the question, "What is a psalm?"3
Today biblical science provides several patterns according to which psalms are constructed.4 [4] However, as most of the psalms are individual texts and do not correspond exactly to one of these standard profiles the various categorizations have become more and more sophisticated. But if these profiles are consulted on a usable pattern for text comparison they either just refer in general to a fundamental aspect of praying, like praise or lamentation, or they provide complex patterns that do apply very well, but only for a few psalms. Nevertheless it is undoubted that there are continuities of themes and arrangement throughout the psalms. For a comparison of biblical and modern psalms the standard profiles can therefore not be adopted as a whole, but they have to be transformed and modified.
In order to develop criteria for description of typical psalmic patterns and a subsequent comparison of texts, two textual levels seem to be of special interest: the level of communication and the level of semantic fields.
A computer aided analysis
In order to describe the level of communication and the level of semantic fields, to analyze occurrences, distribution as well as the most often used combinations, computer programs are used, to handle the data and to provide transparent and complete results.
First the texts are prepared in order to provide sufficient data then the
typical patterns of the psalms are analysed
and subsequently the poems are compared with the biblical texts
Data preparation
The texts of the biblical psalms and the poems are supplemented with further informations. The preparation of the textual data is done semiautomated and as a result every word of the texts consists of the following informations:
The inflected wordform, as it occurs in the text.
For every word the lemma as grammatical standard form is added;
The synonym, as standard contend form, is added.
The words are arranged in semantic fields.6 This enables text-comparisons on a content level. E.g. the difficulties and dangers the biblical psalms describe will not be put into the same or even similar words today, but nevertheless these expressions belong to the same semantic field.
The words are distinguished according to the parts of speech and put into different categories to enable additional differentiations.
This data preparation offers a wide choice for a text analysis and a text comparison under various aspects, with different interests.
Typical patterns within the book of psalms
The level of communication: As the biblical book of psalms is a collection of different prayers it presents for their modern predecessors a variety of possible actualization. However, on the level of communication the different forms of speech may offer characteristic features of the psalms. " The utterance of " You" as the center of speech distinguishes Israel's prayer from all modern "turns to the subject ". 5
Most of the psalms are formulated as a kind of dialogue, either with God or with the religious community. The focal point usually is a praying man/woman speaking of her/his distress, crying for help or giving thanks for the experience of rescue. Thereby she/he addresses someone, forming a dialogue, although it remains a one sided dialogue because we hardly ever hear of a direct response.
Example: the results for the distribution of the personal pronoun "you" show, that most of the psalms (76%) address someone directly.

On the other hand there are reflections about God, about an ideal way of live, the human fate etc. and there are narrative parts, telling about the great deeds of God. It is this combination of the different modes of communication that is special for the psalms. Therefore it is necessary to take a closer look at this distribution.
For a computer aided analysis of the modes of communication the following words and word-forms help to essentially to analyze the various speech acts and forms of communication.
Inflected verbforms, indicating whether it is a form of dialogue (2nd person) or a narration (3rd person).
Personal pronouns
Vocatives
E.g. if we take a closer look at those psalms, traditionally categorized as hymns, the distribution of speech-acts most often is some variation of direcitve-assertive/expressive forming various combinations and repetitions. Furthermore the speech-acts form typical combinations concerning themes and partners in the dialogue:

communication-partners
speech-acts
themes
I - you
directive
praise of GOD
I - nations, people of Israel, nature
directive
praise of GOD
I - GOD
directive, expressive

I - my soul
assertive, expressive
praise of GOD
I as narrator
assertive, expressive
deeds of GOD, history of Israel

The level of semantic fields: For an analysis of the psalms' content the level of semantic fields is the most valuable. Because of the highly metaphoric language used within the psalms this levels allows to condense similar formulations and verbal expressions to a limited number of semantic fields.
Furthermore the analysis of the semantic fields allows to summarize the most often used and combined semantic fields within the book of psalms, and in this way provides the necessary information for a comparison with the poems, pointing out similar lines of thoughts, motives and images.
These two levels of analysis allow a detailed description of biblical psalms that subsequently enables to distinguish between the various forms of relations between lyric poetry and the biblical psalms.

Comparison of the poems
The lyrical poems are compared with the patterns of the psalms, therefore every poem is searched for a possible resemblance with a pattern of the psalms. Depending on how intensive a poem picks up a typical pattern of dialogue or semantic field of the psalms the poems may be arranged and classified with regard to the tradition of psalms.
This will be shown on various examples of modern lyric poetry.
Conclusion
The results of these comparisons offer similarities between the poems and the psalms that allow the interpreter to recognize and to understand the resemblance between the poem and the biblical psalms. They make it easier to distinguish between different relations of lyric poetry and the biblical psalms and furthermore they provide valuable informations for reconstructing the psalmic tradition within modern lyric poetry.
Notes
1 For a short description of modern psalms within German literature cf. Kythler, Bernhard. Moderne Psalmen. In: Ebach, Jürgen (ed.). Bibel und Literatur. München 1995.
2 See Kurz, Paul Konrad (ed.). Psalmen vom Expressionismus bis zur Gegenwart. Freiburg/Basel/Wien 1978. and Kurz, Paul Konrad (ed.). Höre Gott! Psalmen des Jahrhunderts. Zürich 1997.
3 Mays, James Luther. Past, Present, and Prospect in Psalm Study. In: Mays, Peterson, Richards (ed). Old Testament interpretation: past, present, and future. Essays in honour of Gene M. Tucker. Nashville, TN 1995, p 147.
4 Gunkel, Hermann. The Psalms. A Form-Critcal Introduction. (Biblical Series 19). Philadelphia, 1967.
5 Brueggemann, Walter. The psalms and the life of faith. Augsburg, MN 1995, p 35.
6 The classification is done with the help of a German thesaurus. Wehrle, Eggers. Deutscher
Wortschatz. Stuttgart 1961.