On the Shore of Nothingness: Space, Rhythm, and Semantic Structure in Religious Poetry and Its Mystic-Secular CounterpartThis book studies how poetic structure transforms verbal imitations of religious experience into concepts. The book investigates how such a conceptual language can convey such non-conceptual experiences as meditation, ecstasy or mystic insights. Briefly, it explores how the poet, by using words, can express the 'ineffable'. It submits to close reading English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Armenian and Hebrew texts, from the Bible, through medieval, renaissance, metaphysical, and baroque poetry, to romantic and symbolistic poetry. |
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Page 8
... contrasts between prominent and non-prominent events become blurred, it may arouse awe, apprehension, and anxiety, owing ... contrast, the symmetrical stanza and the all-too-regular rhythm appear to undermine the infernal atmosphere. The ...
... contrasts between prominent and non-prominent events become blurred, it may arouse awe, apprehension, and anxiety, owing ... contrast, the symmetrical stanza and the all-too-regular rhythm appear to undermine the infernal atmosphere. The ...
Page 9
... contrast, Faust's “immersion in an abstraction” image, “Disciple, up! untiring, hasten! / to bathe thy breast in morning-red!”, does evoke the detection of such an experience. Indeed, traditional Faust criticism claimed that these lines ...
... contrast, Faust's “immersion in an abstraction” image, “Disciple, up! untiring, hasten! / to bathe thy breast in morning-red!”, does evoke the detection of such an experience. Indeed, traditional Faust criticism claimed that these lines ...
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... contrast, according to the conventions of the English Sonnet, the final couplet should effect a surprise ending, even a reversal of all that's said in the preceding lines. In such a reading the poem offers some extreme metaphysical wit ...
... contrast, according to the conventions of the English Sonnet, the final couplet should effect a surprise ending, even a reversal of all that's said in the preceding lines. In such a reading the poem offers some extreme metaphysical wit ...
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... contrast, is not so much an encounter with a 'sacred other' as it is the interior attainment of a certain supernal state of mind. Such an attainment is usually held, except by mystics in traditions strongly committed to the numinous, to ...
... contrast, is not so much an encounter with a 'sacred other' as it is the interior attainment of a certain supernal state of mind. Such an attainment is usually held, except by mystics in traditions strongly committed to the numinous, to ...
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... contrast here is not only between “infernal” and “heavenly”, but also between “landscape” and “choir”. In syllabo-tonic verse, obtrusive rhythms may be generated by repeating highly prominent configurations four—five times in a line ...
... contrast here is not only between “infernal” and “heavenly”, but also between “landscape” and “choir”. In syllabo-tonic verse, obtrusive rhythms may be generated by repeating highly prominent configurations four—five times in a line ...
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On the Shore of Nothingness: Space, Rhythm, and Semantic Structure in ... Reuven Tsur Limited preview - 2003 |
Common terms and phrases
abstract Andreas Gryphius aspects Auschwitz Baroque boundaries chapter characteristic cognitive Cognitive Poetics composition of place conception conceptual metaphor consciousness context contrast convergent device diffuse discussed Donne Donne’s ecstatic effect Ehrenzweig elements emotional evoke excerpt fire focus function gestalt-free Hebrew Herbert’s human Ibn Gabirol imagery instance intense kind language light man’s Martz meaning meditation mental metaphor metaphysical poetry metonymy Milton mystic experience mystic poetry nature Neo-Platonic nothingness noun numinous objects one’s orientation Paradise Lost paradox passage pattern perceived perception periphrasis phrase physical Platonic poem poet poetic position potentials predicate present prosodic quatrain quoted reader reality reference reinforced religious poetry rhyme rhythm romantic romantic poetry Rudolf Otto semantic sense sestet sonnet soul spatial speech sounds stanza structure sublime suggests syllables syntactic thing-free tion transcendence trochaic Tsur Tyger typically undifferentiated verb verbal verse visual shapes witty words Wordsworth’s world picture