Copyright

F. W. Dobbs-Allsopp

Published On

2024-01-16

Page Range

pp. 1–10

Language

  • English

Print Length

10 pages

Introduction

  • F. W. Dobbs-Allsopp (author)
Chapter of: Divine Style: Walt Whitman and the King James Bible(pp. 1–10)
The Introduction sets out the book’s main preoccupations, and provides brief overviews of the component chapters. The central idea pressed throughout, stated most succinctly, is that the KJB’s influence was consequential for many of the leading elements of Whitman’s mature poetic style. Whitman’s signature long lines, the prevalence of parallelism and the “free” rhythms it helps create, the prosiness and tendency towards parataxis, aspects of diction and phrasing, and the decidedly lyrical bent of the entire project are all directly indebted to the KJB. These characteristics emerge in the immediate run-up to the 1855 Leaves and come into full bloom in that volume and in its subsequent editions.

Contributors

F. W. Dobbs-Allsopp

(author)
James Lenox Librarian and Professor of Old Testament at Princeton Theological Seminary

F. W. “Chip” Dobbs-Allsopp is the James Lenox Librarian and professor of Old Testament at Princeton Theological Seminary. He holds a B.A. from Furman University (1984), an M.Div. from the Seminary (1987), and a Ph.D. from The Johns Hopkins University (1992). He joined the faculty of the Seminary in 1999 after spending five years teaching at Yale University (1994-99). He loves sailing and poetry and has been known to enjoy a glass of wine or a wee dram of whiskey. His research interests include the historical, philological, and literary study of biblical and ancient Near Eastern literature (with special focus on poetry and Northwest Semitic inscriptions). Dobbs-Allsopp’s most recent book is On Biblical Poetry (New York/Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015). Current projects include a monograph-length study of the poetry of Walt Whitman, provisionally entitled, Divine Style: Walt Whitman and the King James Bible., a critical commentary on the book of Lamentations in the Hermeneia series (co-authored with J. Blake Couey), and The Digital Brooklyn Museum Aramaic Papyri: An Image-Based Electronic Edition & Archive.