Poetry in the Bible

How do we interpret poetry, in general?

Grass, by Carl Sandburg

Pile the bodies high at Austerlitz and Waterloo. Shovel them under and let me work I am the grass; I cover all. And pile them high at Gettysburg And pile them high at Ypres and Verdun. Shovel them under and let me work. Two years, ten years, and passengers ask the conductor: What place is this? Where are we now? I am the grass. Let me work.

1. What was Carl Sandburg trying to say with that poem?

Austerlitz, Waterloo, Gettysburg, Ypres, and Verdun were all sites of major battles; Austerlitz and Waterloo were battles fought by Napoleon; Gettysburg was in the US Civil War; and Ypres and Verdun were WWI battles. Toward the end of the poem, passengers on a train, while passing the sites, ask the conductor where they are; the grass has covered the bodies so that people passing don't even know they are passing these battlefields. The poem is about our tendency to forget the past, especially these bloody battles.

What about biblical poetry? Read the narrative prose in Judge 4:14-24. Then, read the poetry in Judges 5:3-5,19-27. 2. How is the poetic story different than the narrative prose story?
In the poem, there is an earthquake, the stars fight Israel's enemy, the river carries away the enemy, and Sisera was killed and then fell down.

Matthew Henry (1662-1714) interpreted it this way:

Some way or other, the heavenly bodies...fought against Sisera... Perhaps the flashes of lightning by which the stars fought was that which frightened the horses, so as that they pranced till their very hoofs were broken (v. 22), and probably overturned the chariots of iron which they drew or turned them back upon their owners.(6.) The river of Kishon fought against their enemies. It swept away multitudes of those that hoped to make their escape through it, v. 21. Ordinarily, it was but a shallow river, and, being in their own country, we may suppose they well knew its fords and safest passages, and yet now, probably by the great rain that fell, it was so swollen, and the stream so deep and strong, that those who attempted to pass it were drowned, being feeble and faint, and unable to make their way through it.

Most commentaries from the 16th-18th centuries try to create a literal explanation for the statement about stars fighting. Henry even tries to explain the river drowning the enemy, even though the river was a shallow and calm river. Henry and others made the mistake of not understanding the passage as poetry; note that the KJV puts the words of the song in paragraph format, just like any other prose.

Read Exodus 15:1-10 for a poetic version of the narrative from Ex 14. 3. What parts of Ex 15 are figurative rather than literal?
The right hand of God fought the battle. God threw the Egyptians into the river. God burned the Egyptians.

Finally, read Colossians 1:15-20. The HCSB, NLT and NET have this passage marked as poetry. The ESV, NASB, KJV and NCV, however, show it as standard text. So, how do translators decide what is poetry and what isn't? A) Poetry is about rhythm, not rhyme. B) Hebrew poetry has parallelism. 4 types of parallelism: 1) synonymous parallelism (Mt 7:8; Lk 6:27-28) a) two different statements saying the same thing b) For everyone who asks receives, and the one who searches finds, and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. c) 48 times in the Gospels 2) antithetical parallelism (Mt 7:17-18; Lk 16:10; almost all of Pro 10-15) a) two statements saying the opposite b) In the same way, every good tree produces good fruit, but a bad tree produces bad fruit. A good tree can't produce bad fruit; neither can a bad tree produce good fruit. c) 138 in Gospels 3) step or climatic parallelism (Mt 10:40; Mt 5:17 a) the second line pushes the idea further b) The one who welcomes you welcomes Me, and the one who welcomes Me welcomes Him who sent Me. c) 20 in Gospels 4) chiasmic parallelism (Mt 23:12; Mk 8:35) a) the parallels form a chiasm (e.g., A,B,B,A) b) Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted. c) 16 in Gospels 4. What parallelism is there in Col 1:15-20?
He created everything: a) in heaven and earth, b) visible and invisible, c) thrones and kingdoms, d) rulers and powers; he created everything.

5. Does it matter whether Col 1:15-20 is poetry or prose?

If this is poetry, the statement about Jesus reconciling everything and bringing peace to everyone does not need to be a statement about universal salvation. If this is not poetry, and is a factual statement, this could easily be interpreted to mean that everyone, even Satan and his angels, will be saved. If it's poetry, the statement can be explained by the flow of saying Jesus created all and reconciles all. It would be less poetic to say he created all and reconciles some.
Sources: Some information in this study was from Robert H. Stein's course on Hermeneutics, and some was from Gordon & Fee's How to read the Bible for all its worth.