English Romantics and Psalmic Poetry

Abstract

This essay shows the dynamics of reception of the psalmist poetry in the 17th- and 19th century in England, as well as religious and literary traditions inherited by Romantic poets. It explains why the English Romantics rarely undertook to paraphrase the Psalms, though religious themes and the Holy Scriptures found particular resonance in some of their works. It points out certain specifics of The King James Bible reflected in the English psalmist poetry and bypassed by its Russian translators. In support of this reading, a commentary on two psalmist poems - Coleridges Hexameters: Paraphrase of Psalm XLVI and Byrons On Jordans Banks - is provided.