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The Sound that Shapes the Soul
I love poetry in the same way that some people love music: passionately and with deep admiration, but with no business attempting to create it myself. But despite my inept ability to turn words into art, I love poetry, nonetheless. I find that poetry does something that normal prose cannot. It speaks to my soul; it feeds my imagination and teaches me profound truths in unexpected ways.
Poetry has had the greatest impact on me when I have either read it aloud or heard it recited verbally. In fact, this is a hallmark of poetry. Poetry predates the written word. Long before humans began writing letters on stone tablets, poetry was there. Ancient cultures memorized poems and recited them orally — the Epics of Homer and Beowulf are two well-known examples.
Poetry is not merely a written genre; it is intended first and foremost to be said aloud and to be heard — in what T.S. Elliot called “the auditory imagination.”[1] To put it another way, we might say that poetry is intended for the ear as much as for the eye.
This is true of Biblical poetry, too. Interestingly, roughly one-third of the Bible is poetry. Without a doubt, the greatest collection of poems is found in the Psalter. Long before the invention of the printing press, or widespread literacy levels — roughly 95 percent of England was illiterate before 1450 — the Psalms were read aloud and sung within the context of worship.
Additionally, the practice of reciting the Psalms was common in the early church. In the 6th century, St. Benedict wrote in his well-known book "The Rule of St. Benedict," that “the entire Psalter of one hundred and fifty psalms is recited every week.”[2] That seems pretty ambitious, to be sure, but it underscores the importance of the Psalms in the Christian life. Centuries later, Archbishop Thomas Cranmer was the first to systematize a 30-day cycle of reading the Psalms. In the Preface to 1549 Book of Common Prayer, Cranmer wrote: “The Psalter shall be read through once every month, as it is there appointed…”[3]
In our Morning and Evening Prayer services at St. Martin’s, we have taken up Cranmer’s mandate of reciting the 30-day Psalter. Saying and hearing this poetic portion of the Scriptures feeds and nourishes the soul. As the Anglican poet and priest, Malcolm Guite describes it, “When we speak the Psalms aloud, we are letting their poetry pray us, even when we cannot find our own words.”[4]
I invite you to take up the ancient practice of reciting the Psalms and to join us at one of our Morning Prayer or Evening Prayer services. In doing so, you will find your soul re-tuned to the heart of God.
[1] T.S. Elliot, The Use of Poetry and the Use of Criticism, pp. 118-119.
[2] St. Benedict, The Rule of St. Benedict, p. 236.
[3] Thomas Cranmer, “The Preface,” 1549 Book of Common Prayer, p. 12.
[4] Malcolm Guite, The Word in the Wilderness.
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