Sample Analysis: Poetry
POetry: Image and Emotion
How do you outline a poem? Is it even fair to reduce a highly emotional expression of rich imagery and powerful passion to a mere series of propositions? If you put it that way, certainly not! But good poetry does have a logic and a structure to it and one of the steps we need to take to present it well is to discern what that logic is.
I have described the basic structure of Hebrew poetry as built around parallel couplets and triplets that are ultimately grouped into larger strophes to provide the overall logic of the poem. An outline of a poem begins with analyzing the smallest units (parallel lines) and expanding to the larger units (groupings of couplets and triplets into “strophes”). As an example, let’s analyze Psalm 46.
STEP ONE: Summarize the smallest units of thought (couplets, triplets, etc).
Carefully reading this psalm line by line, we begin to notice that much of the poem after the first two lines is made up of not two or three, but four lines of poetry that work together in a synthetic fashion to carry chunks of meaning. The first step towards outlining its structure is to summarize each of these units in a concise way. The result is something like this:
STEP TWO: Summarize larger units of thought (strophes).
Once we have made this first pass at the psalm’s structure, we begin to see how these smaller chunks fit into larger chunks of meaning in strophes. There’s a good chance that your Bible translation may already break the poem up this way. Sometimes, as in this case, the psalm itself gives you a clear hint with a signal like the “Selah” inserted at the end of each strophe. But even without this help, as you consider the themes within adjacent units, you can usually begin to see the logical structure coming through. In the case of Psalm 46, we have three strophes, two of which point to the benefits of God’s presence, and the third which points to the demands of God’s presence. Now our outline looks like this:
STEP THREE: Outline the meaning
Based on this outline, we have a short journey to a logical map of the psalm that can serve as an excellent foundation for the logical flow of a sermon. Here are some provisional “Exegetical Conclusions”:
Central Idea of the Text: A Life in God’s Presence
Summary Statement of the Text: The Psalmist reminds his people of the benefits and the demands of living in God’s presence.
Major Emphases of the Text:
1. Living in God’s presence frees us from all fear.
2. Living in God’s presence gives us confidence in the face of all uncertainties.
3. Living in God’s presence requires continual focus on his work in the world and in our lives.
Should our preaching of this beautiful psalm be limited to merely rolling out this structure? Absolutely not! Of course, we want to explore the nuances of the imagery and plumb the depths of emotion that are expressed in this poem. But grasping the overall flow of meaning of this imagery and emotion helps us to plot a sermon that will help our hearers to encounter its message most profoundly.
