Acrostic Artistry: Stanza Formation in the Acrostic Psalms

The seven complete or nearly complete acrostic psalms (Psalms 25, 34, 37, 111, 112, 119 and 145) are masterpieces of poetic beauty. This paper explores the importance of stanza formation in giving poetic structure to the flow of meaning in these prayers of trust and lament, of despair and wisdom, of praise and penitence. After looking briefly at the acrostic psalms in which stanza division is reasonably clear and not much disputed, the paper takes its examples from the lament of Psalms 25 and the praise of Psalm 111 because commentators and major translations differ significantly in their understanding of the structure of these two Psalms. In the course of this discussion, the paper highlights a range of poetic devices which these Psalms employ to achieve stanza cohesion and to mark the movement between stanzas; in particular, the modification of the acrostic device itself, speech and tense-aspect switching, syntactic linking, bridging, rhythm patterns and the use of tri-cola. More generally the paper argues that priority should be given to the poetry of a psalm, including the psalms stanza division for determining its meaning. The paper therefore contributes to the growing commitment in the Bible translation movement, perhaps even an ethical commitment, to treat poetry as poetry with the aim of supporting language communities across the world in their own poetic rendering of the Psalms for use in private and public worship.